 Facts on File, Inc. 2006 448 pages |
Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and WorkThough virtually unknown in her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is today one of the most widely read and studied American poets. Though her poems have an immediate, intimate and powerful appeal to readers,they are "difficult" poems: condensed, encoded, mysterious. While there are gems in virtually everything she wrote - striking, moving, unforgettable lines and phrases - grasping a full Dickinson poem requires a certain amount of work by the reader. This volume serves as a critical companion, both to the poems themselves and to the reader attempting to enter the poems on a deeper level. More than 150 jargon-free analyses and close-readings of her most beloved, studied, and anthologized readers, written with the general reader in mind, form the core of the book. In addition, it includes: • A comprehensive biography of Dickinson • Entries on people important to Dickinson, including friends, relatives, correspondents, and editor • Entries on topics important to the under- standing of Dickinson's work, including analyses of her peculiar use of dashes and capital letters • A foreword by noted poet and Dickinson scholar Gregory Orr • A chronology of Dickinson's life and a biblio- graphy of primary and secondary sources. |
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