Overall this is an important addition to the field of Hughes studies that provides a basis for diverse new approaches to Hughes's life and poetry. The book's main strength lies in its synthesis of a wide range of rich materials: political, cultural, biographical and poetic. -- Carrie Smith, Cardiff University, UK * The Review of English Studies *
Bentley offers a Marxist reading of Hughes, distinguishing his own conclusions from those of other Marxist critics of the poet by concentrating on class and attempting to undo misreadings of Hughes's intentions and sometimes unconscious inclinations. Bentley argues convincingly that Hughes's early work is not at all blind to history's brutality. Bentley offers close readings of many of Hughes's poems. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. -- J. P. Baumgaertner, Wheaton College * CHOICE *
If in recent years we have seen the emergence of the other Sylvia Plath, Paul Bentley has given us the other Ted Hughes. Bentley shows that those labels often associated with Hughes-nature poet, poet of violence, Darwinian primitivist-have obscured Hughes's deep engagement with history, politics and biography. In a series of meticulous close readings, he reveals an ironist and self-parodist haunted by industrial slavery, colonial oppression, class warfare and parental trauma. Bentley suggests, convincingly, that we have been misreading Hughes all along: that his nature poems do not offer an illusory retreat from history, but rather a dark reflection of history's brutality. Ted Hughes, Class, and Violence is a groundbreaking study of a poet whose verse runs deep as England. * Heather Clark, Marlboro College, USA, *
The primary value of Bentley's book resides in how it drags this hitherto neglected dimension of Hughes's work into the light and refuses to let it return to the shadows ... Weighing in at a mere 130 pages, this book is short and to the point ... Nevertheless, this remains a vibrant and valuable contribution to the burgeoning field of Hughes scholarship. -- S. J. Perry, University of Hull * English Studies *
