John Carey (critic)

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John Carey (born 5 April 1934) is a British literary critic, and emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. He was born in Barnes, London, and educated at Richmond and East Sheen Boys’ Grammar School, winning an Open Scholarship to St John's College, Oxford. He served in the East Surrey Regiment, 1952-4, and was commissioned. After posts in a number of Oxford colleges, he became Merton Professor in 1975, retiring in 2001.

He is known, amongst other things, for his anti-elitist tone and iconoclastic views on high culture, as expressed for example in his book What Good Are the Arts? (2005).

He has twice chaired the Booker Prize committee, in 1982 and 2004, and chaired the judging panel for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. He is chief book reviewer for the London Sunday Times and appears in radio and TV programmes such as Saturday Review and Newsnight Review.

Works

  • The Poems of John Milton (1968) editor with Alastair Fowler
  • Andrew Marvell: A Critical Anthology (1969) editor
  • The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg (1969) editor
  • John Milton (1969)
  • Complete Shorter Poems of John Milton (1971), revised 2nd edition (1997) editor
  • The Violent Effigy. A Study of Dickens’ Imagination (1973) published in America as Here Comes Dickens. The Imagination of a Novelist. Republished in Faber Finds (2008)
  • John Milton, Christian Doctrine (1971) translator
  • Thackeray: Prodigal Genius (1977) republished in Faber Finds (2008)
  • English Renaissance Studies: Presented To Dame Helen Gardner In Honour Of Her Seventieth Birthday (1979)
  • John Donne: Life, Mind and Art (1981) new revised edition (1990) republished in Faber Finds (2008)
  • William Golding : The Man and His Books (1986) editor
  • Faber Book of Reportage (1987) editor. Published in America as Eyewitness to History, Harvard University Press, (1987)
  • Original Copy : Selected Reviews and Journalism 1969-1986 (1987)
  • John Donne. The Major Works (1990) editor, Oxford Authors, reprinted with revisions (2000) World’s Classics
  • The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939 (1992)
  • Short Stories and the Unbearable Bassington by Saki (1994) editor
  • Faber Book of Science (1995) editor. Published in America as Eyewitness to Science: Scientists and Writers Illuminate Natural Phenomena from Fossils to Fractals, Harvard University Press, (1997)
  • Selected Poetry of John Donne (1998) editor
  • Faber Book of Utopias (2000) editor
  • Pure Pleasure: a Guide to the Twentieth Century's Most Enjoyable Books (2000)
  • George Orwell, Essays (2002) editor
  • Vanity Fair by William Thackeray (2002) editor
  • What Good are the Arts? (2005)
  • William Golding: The Man Who Wrote 'Lord of the Flies' (2009)

External links

Authority control
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