Author Description

Praise for the Oxford Authors Series: I welcome the Oxford Authors series. Aimed at students and general readers alike, it should do much to turn students into general readers--and vice versa."--Christian Science MoniterThe Oxford Authors is a series of authoritative editions of major English writers designed for the student and general reader. Drawing on the best texts available, each volume contains a generous selection from the writings--prose, poetry, letters--to provide the fullest possible introduction to that writer's work and thought. Each volume is further complemented by essential notes, an introduction, chronology,and suggestions for further reading. This volume brings together the two sides of Matthew Arnold's literary achievement--the celebrated verse and prose. The first part presents Arnold's major poems, "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse," the love poems in the "Switzerland" and "Faded Leaves" sequences, several narrative poems, and his major elegies. The prose selections in part two, arranged in chronological order of composition, span Arnold's entire writing career, beginning with several lively letters from his early correspondence with Arthur Hugh Clough, to his very last essay, "Civilization in the United States." Throughout both the poetry and prose is heard the unmistakable voice of a man whom E.M. Forster aptly described as "a great poet, a civilized citizen, and a prophet."