The Pound Era

Great stuff! Only four stars, though, because this book includes no transcripts of "Old Ezra's" historic and way-humorous radio broadcasts, made from WWII-era Italy. These exist, because Ysmaguchy used to offer them online. Otherwise, a wonderful and thorough biographical work about this great American!

Read carefully, slowly, and well and you will find yourself returning to (or reading for the first time) the most incredible range of poets. Yes, painters, philosophers, etc, but Kenner in the poets is eloquent, idiosyncratic, brilliant. Pound is the frame for the era, which leads us to eras. A great book.

great read -- deliberately subjective history of literary giants -- a kind of highly informative ekphrastic prose poem in itself

In depth analysis

This is simply one of the greatest, if not the greatest, works of intellectual history ever written anywhere at anytime by anyone. The breadth of his knowledge is breathtaking. This is erudition without pretense or snobbery. You don't just come to know Pound, you become Pound and live in his world. By no means easy, but in every way worth the effort. Truly a masterpiece. Get it. Read it. Enjoy it.

There are many Pound scholars today and many of them are very good, however, in my opinion Hugh Kenner is one of the most creative thinkers of his time. This volume is a very well put together, accessible and reference point for all of Pound's wonderful, but difficult referenced work.

A problem very nicely resolved

This is a true tour de force, one that through an unrivaled acuteness of intellect and erudition and the freshness of an almost smelling salt style brings alive an entire era of intellectual and poetic history: the poets, the people, the places, the currents and cross currents, the subtleties of discoveries and insights and the splendor of breath-taking beauty and achievements. I’ve spent a life-time reading and I’ve never read a book quite as dazzling as this one, both a page-turner and a near library of fascinating facts and meanings on every page. In answer to that old parlor game of ‘Name three books you would take with you to a desert island’. This would certainly be one of them; the other two, the Bible and Gilson’s History of Medieval Philosophy. I think the best of Western Civilization could be re-constructed from them. I can’t recommend this gem too highly. Its intellectual and poetic precisions are cut like a diamond and more valuable.

This is essential reading!To understand the birth of Modernism in literature and the impact it continues to make even on the writing of the 21st century this is a must have!

Me encanta porque es un ensayo sobre literatura, mayormente poesía, cuya lectura me entusiasma.Lo recomiendo a personas que amen la lectura de poesía y todo tipo de literatura y que además sepan inglés.

reçu en bonne codition

A big disappointment. I remember reading Kenner on Beckett, when I was a student of literature, and finding him witty, perceptive and revelatory. Here, he seems to have gone completely over the top, stylistically, creating an obfuscation that I find most perplexing and irritating.