Product Description
This study of Chatwin and his work traces the life of this private man, showing how it influenced his writing. Murray demonstrates how exile and the balance between the desire to settle and that to wander are the twin themes of what appear to be six very disparate books. Murray also examines how the books were driven by ideas, rather than plot and character. In addition to a full discussion of the works (including "On the Black Hill") and the critical responses to them, Murray charts the controversy surrounding Chatwin's death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book is NOT out of print.
This book has JUST been reviewed by the Financial Times of London and is available through them at a disocunted price.It is NOT out of print. ... Read more

Product Description
A fascinating collection of biographical essays by some of today's most distinguished historians. Brought together by Alistair Horne, 26 eminent writers were offered complete freedom of choice in their subject and have chosen a colourful cast of characters, from Mussolini and Carole Lombard to Margaret Thatcher and Isaiah Berlin. This variety is matched by a fascinating diversity of approach to the subjects: Redmond O'Hanlon has contributed his personal reminiscence of Bruce Chatwin. Christina Hardyment compares Marie Stopes and Germaine Greer and Robert Kee speculates on how Parnell might have reacted to the Good Friday Agreement. ... Read more

Product Description
From his early success with the innovative In Patagonia, to the bestseller The Songlines and onto the posthumous publications, this study deals with ideas of travel, nomadism, collecting and the development of Chatwin's style and subject matter. The study also discusses the role of the Chatwin persona in the reception of his work, and the use of Bruce, the first person narrator which underlines the Chatwin myth. ... Read more

Product Description
Series Editors: Kinley E. Roby, Northeastern University; Herbert Sussman, Northeastern University; Joseph Bartolomeo, University of Massachusetts; George Economou, University of Oklahoma; Arthur F. Kinney, University of Massachusetts

Twayne's United States Authors, English Authors, and World Authors Series present concise critical introductions to great writers and their works.

Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading the Authors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives. Each volume features:

• A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works
• A brief biography of the author
• An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author
• Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography, and an index
• A readable style presented in a manageable length

Customer Reviews (1)

Patrick Meanor's new book opens up Bruce Chatwin to all.
Indeed Chatwin is a mystery to his readers.I was one of them.Even hisclosest friends and editor (Susannah Clapp) wrote puzzling portraits ofChatwin. Chatwin was surely a writer and a man of contradictions...no lessapparaent in his several personal relationships of both female and malelovers. Any writer dying at the relatively youthful age of 48 (from AIDS)leaves his readers both sad and puzzled.Chatwin is one of them. Sad,because we are deprived of his special gift of the pen and deprived becausewe no longer have access to a writer of his depth and contribution to thisspecial literary genre.Dr. Meanor's book, Bruce Chatwin (Twayne's EnglishAuthors series, No. 542) opens up his life and his writing in a way whichsuggests an approach to his work. We begin to comprehend in ways we neverfirst understood, what motivated him to travel afar in the first place andwhat bothered him about modern life and how he revealed his personal andliterary restlessness. Chatwin suddenly becomes much more accessible, butthe search still continues, even though Chatwin's personal journey hasended. ... Read more

Product Description
Since its discovery by Magellan in 1520, Patagonia was known as a country of black fogs and whirlwinds at the end of the inhabited world. It immediately lodged itself in the imagination as a metaphor for "the ultimate", the point beyond which one could not go. In this book, Chatwin and Theroux join forces to explores the instances in which the "final capes of exile" have affected the literary imagination, and to track down some of the extraordinary travellers, past and present, from W.H. Hudson, to Captain Joshua Slocum and Butch Cassidy. Paul Theroux has won the Whitbread Literary Award. This book had its origins in an entertainment the writers gave for The Royal Geographical Society, at a time when Theroux was following Chatwin's "In Patagonia" with "The Old Patagonian Express". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Truly Superb

The Jones twins, Lewis and Benjamin, are born on a Welsh borders farm at the turn of the century. They never leave home and limit their travels to the local Towns and villages. Whilst their lives change very little and their security is in a non changing environment, the world outside goes through two wars, political and social change. The twins live as far as they can outside it,but slowly the world as they know it evapourates and disappears..
This is a fascinating, touching and at times humourous portrayal of a parochial English country life that has vanished. The story of the twins dependency on each other and their lives over the unfolding century are beautifully handled and laden with wonderful descriptive prose and vignettes of their everyday lives.This novel is a true classic and will be read and enjoyed centuries from now.
Bruce Chatwins name is often mentioned by other writers-always fondly-and on reading this you understand the sense of loss they felt at his premature death.Had he lived, Chatwin would have undoubtably been a nobel winner.
You will be moved by the twins story,their 80th birthday surprise and the tragedy that follows,but also you'll know more about the essense of humanity and being human. This is easily one of the best books you will ever read.

The beauty of time moving slowly
I'd call this a masterpiece of rural fiction.The novel unfolds so beautifully and reveals a seemingly timeless set of lives, yet the events of the world peak in and force you to understand how even isolated lives are linked into the flow of history.By the end of these pages the world has changed dramatically, tragically, beautifully; perhaps all of the past is a tapestry of such lives woven to present just the headline events, but I don't recall another writer who has bettered Chatwin's presentation of this fact.Its a short novel, very easily read, and yet will provide you with a place to send your thoughts for days and weeks afterwards. ... Read more