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9 - Auden's prose

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

Stan Smith
Affiliation:
Nottingham Trent University
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Summary

A striking feature of Auden's prose is its accumulated quantity. Two volumes have appeared so far in Edward Mendelson's ongoing edition of the Complete Works, and his preface to the latest indicates that at least four will be needed to contain Auden's total output in the medium. This prediction seems amply justified. Prose vols. i and ii, at 836 and 556 pages respectively, have only reached 1948, and thus exclude much - though not all - of what was collected during Auden's lifetime in The Enchafèd Flood (1951), The Dyer's Hand (1963), Secondary Worlds (1968) and Forewords and Afterwords (1973). A Certain World (1970) must also come into the reckoning, that autobiography disguised as a commonplace book, in which Auden's own reflections intermingle with a preponderance of material drawn eclectically from other sources; and since the edition so far has included the work of his literary collaborators, the likelihood is that its subsequent volumes will contain this book, as well as the others listed above and all post-1948 prose previously uncollected. There is, then, a great deal of material: Auden's prose will constitute the largest generic component, when the edition of his Complete Works stands finally, and magnificently, completed.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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  • Auden's prose
  • Edited by Stan Smith, Nottingham Trent University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521829623.009
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  • Auden's prose
  • Edited by Stan Smith, Nottingham Trent University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521829623.009
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Auden's prose
  • Edited by Stan Smith, Nottingham Trent University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to W. H. Auden
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521829623.009
Available formats
×