SUMMONED BY BELLS

by John Betjeman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 1960

Sizeable segments of this book have already appeared in the New Yorker and it is an autobiography written in clear, almost conversational blank verse by a well known poet. It is as well a leisurely recall filled with the green, tidy, dreamy landscapes of rural England-- the parks, bookshops, streets and stately houses of London-- and the emotions aroused by their scents, colors and private associations. Here too are characters-eccentric nursemaids, parents, schoolmates as they attend the growing up of a shy and sheltered child, living in the dread of punishments and lessons, finally to find a sudden, marvelous freedom at Oxford. Neglecting the necessary studies there, he was sent down, narrowly escaped his father's business by accepting a job in a prep school, and the book leaves him here in Noman's Land. But aside from the evidence of other published works, the evidence of this poem itself, with its leisurely, lilting, evocative images, tells us that he finally escaped to become as he had hoped an accomplished poet.

Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION