Books by Craig Raine

A selection of literary essays written since 1972, this book addresses in detail the work of Dickens, Donne, T. S. Eliot, Coleridge, Dr Johnson, Betjeman, Elizabeth Bishop, Saul Bellow, James Joyce, and many others. Vigilant, sceptical, mistrustful of consensus, Craig Raine stands in the tradition of poet-critics whose task, as Eliot said, is 'the elucidation of works of art and the correction of taste'.

A compact biography and guide to one of the greatest English-language poets, T. S. Eliot sheds new light on the themes and events that shaped the life and work of the Nobel laureate.

Craig Raine's dazzlingly original second novel, The Divine Comedy is a gripping meditation on sex and death and God and the myriad ways in which the human body plays dirty tricks on us.