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Further Requirements gathers together the many interviews, broadcasts, statements and reviews that were omitted from Required Writing. Taken altogether this collection fills in a consistent but sometimes unexpected portrait of Philip Larkin - mordant, intolerant, generous, but always himself. It will give great pleasure to all admirers of his work. ... Read more

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Overturning many of the established perspectives on Larkin's poetry and prose, Cooper's book presents new evidence from a range of previously unpublished sources, and is the first full-length critical work to analyse Larkin's early fiction, as well as advancing new readings of 'The Less Deceived', 'The Whitsun Weddings' and 'High Windows'. Critics have tended to label Larkin's poetry as sexist, racist and reactionary. However, this volume demonstrates that Larkin's artistic impulse throughout his career was to challenge orthodox models of social and sexual politics. Focusing on the Brunette Coleman novellas and the unfinished novels, a structural blueprint is identified as prefiguring the later poems' commentary on sexual and social conduct. Further unpublished material includes correspondence, workbook drafts, dream records, and a playscript, depicting, alternately, hostility to wartime heroics, revulsion from capitalism, unease with traditional gender roles and an interest in psychoanalysis.This study makes available to scholars paintings by Larkin's friend, James Sutton, which illuminate the writer's concern with social oppression, especially the predicament of women in the 1940s. This is a fresh and revealing study on Larkin's artistic subversion; stylistic and thematic, it reveals the underlying themes of Larkin's entire oeuvre. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of Larkin's two novels -feels curiously underworked
This is one of the two novels written by British poet Philip Larkin (1922-1985). Originally written in 1946, it tells the story of Kemp, a working class boy from the north of England arriving to study in Oxford during World War II. Socially awkward, his roommate is an upper classmen who disdains Kemp but allows him to be around him as a hanger on, as a human pet he can mock along with his friends. Though Larkin has said this was not an autobiography, it shares with many of them written by authors the story of a youth with few friends, desiring women from afar but realizing they remain completely out of reach to them. Despite taking place during the War, the conflagration appears fleetingly in the book, when Kemp has to visit his fictional hometown of Huddlesford to see if his family has survived an aerial bombing of the city. The title refers to Jill, a cousin of one of the upper classmen. Kemp has a crush on Jill, but naturally finds himself barely able to talk to her. In general, the book starts fairly well, but it sorts of bogs down towards the middle. Since few things happen to Kemp, most of the story is told in introspective style, as the sensitive protagonist tells how he felt at a number of mundane things that happened to him - this is fine, but it can also end up being tiresome. ... Read more

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Further Requirements follows Larkin's Required Writing in gathering interviews, broadcasts, statements, and reviews that collectively offer a surprising portrait of Larkin: mordant, modest, intolerant, and generous -- but always himself.
Philip Larkin (1922-85) was a prolific and honored British poet, editor, fiction writer, and reviewer. His books of poetry include High Windows, The Whitsun Weddings, and The Less Deceived.
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Larkin's Collected Poems has become essential reading on any bookshelf, covering his four published volumes The North Ship (1945), The Less Deceived (1955), The Whitsun Weddings (1964) and High Windows (1974). But Larkin was a prolific writer in his youth, and wrote over two hundred and fifty poems in the years leading up to his first collection. Drawing on the pamphlets, manuscripts and workbooks from 1938 to 1946, the Early Poems reveals, for the first time, the formative writings and literary origins of this most gifted of poets. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Review
I'm a fan of Larkin, and single - and get pretty tired with the constant characterisation of larkin's poetry as reflecting his sad sorry personal life.

Osborne takes up the defense arguing that the assessment of Larkin's poetry by reference to his personal life is a) limited and b) biased.

Its a great book.Really sweeping in the breadth of the ground covered.Always pithy.Entertaining.Stimulating.

Forget Northrop Frye.Start here. ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Philip Larkin," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Philip Larkin in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Philip Larkin when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Philip Larkin, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more