Böcker av Francis Mulhern

Rome 400 BCE. Greed, envy and broken trust. A prophecy of fame is spoken and the commander of the legions wants it for himself, whatever the cost. Driven by the constant march of the enemy the young Marcus Furius finds he is a natural leader of men as war rages and battles are hard-fought. With success comes jealousy and resentment. Hatred soon follows. Fighting to retain his dignity, to see Rome smash her foes and to become the man for whom the prophecy is spoken, Marcus Furius must learn to be a soldier and a statesman if he is ever to become Dictator of Rome. This is the first book in the saga of the life of a real historical figure, Marcus Furius Camillus, the greatest General of Rome before Julius Caesar.

The literary criticism of Francis Mulhern, author of The Moment of ‘Scrutiny’ and Culture/Metaculture

Two leading critics grapple with problems of literature, politics and intellectual practice.

A bold new vision of the modern English novelThe leading critic Francis Mulhern uncovers a hidden history in the fiction of the past century, identifying a central new genre: the condition of culture novel. Reading across and against the grain of received patterns of literary association, tracing a line from Hardy and Forster, through Woolf, Waugh and Bowen, to Barstow, Fowles, Rendell, Naipaul, Amis, Kureishi and Smith, he elucidates the recurring topics and narrative logics of the genre, showing how culture emerges as a special ground of social conflict, above all between classes. The narrative evaluations of culture's endsthe aspirations and the destinies of those whose lives are the subject of these novelsgrow steadily darker over time, and the writing itself grows more introverted.A concluding discussion elicits the characteristics of the English condition of culture novel, in an international setting, and closes in, finally, on the central conundrum of the genre: its uncanny reprise, in its own plane, of the historical arc of the modern labour movement in Britain, from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century through its post-war heyday to the seemingly inexorable decline of recent decades.

The outlines of contemporary critical theory are now often taught as a standard feature of a degree in literary studies. This text aims to explore the theoretical issues and conflicts embodied in the essays selected and locates areas of disagreement between positions.

A stimulating, interdisciplinary survey of the conceptual and political issues involved in the notion of twentieth-century culture. This accessible study introduces important theorists including Freud, Woolf, Orwell, and Sartre.