Books by William Empson

This is the first scholarly edition of William Empson's The Structure of Complex Words (1951), a classic of literary criticism and a major statement of his work. An extensive introduction and explanatory notes are included, together with a selection of related writings. It will immediately become the standard version of this celebrated text.

The English poet, philosopher, and literary critic William Empson considered 'The Face of the Buddha' to be one of his finest works and was heartbroken when he lost the only copy in the wake of World War Two. Its recent rediscovery means the book can now be offered for the very first time exactly as he intended.

Reprint of the ed. published by New Directions, Norfolk, Conn. in 1961.

This collection of William Empson's vibrant essays on drama, the second volume of his writings on Renaissance literature, includes essays on Kyd, Johnson, Webster and Shakespeare, all are written with Empson's incomparable zest and intelligence.

Empson has long been applauded for the dazzling intelligence and emotional passion of his poems. Praised in his lifetime by the likes of T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas and John Betjeman, his reputation contines to be high. His poems take a wide range of themes from metaphysics to melancholy, social climbing to political satire, and from love to loss.