William Empson: The Structure of Complex Words

William Empson (1906-1984), poet, critic and essayist, is most famous for his first book, Seven Types of Ambiguity, begun while he was in Cambridge undergraduate. After a stint teaching in Japan and China, he worked for the BBC throughout the Second World War, afterwards returning to China for a longer stay. He was a professor of the University of Sheffield between 1952 and 1971, and was knighted in 1979. His other notable works include The Structure of Complex Words and Milton's God. Collected Poems was published in 1955, and his Complete Poems was published in 2000 by the Penguin Press.


Helen Thaventhiran is a University Lecturer in Modern Literature at the University of Cambridge and fellow of Robinson College. In Radical Empiricists (2015), she considered the work of five modernist close readers, including William Empson. Her research concerns the relations between literature, criticism and the philosophy of language, with further interests in dance and the contemporary critical essay.


Stefan Collini is Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History and English Literature at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of several books on English literary and intellectual history, including Public Moralists (1991), Matthew Arnold (1994), English Pasts (1999), Absent Minds (2006), Common Reading (2008), Common Writing (2016), and The Nostalgic Imagination (2019). He has also been a prominent contributor to debates about higher education policy and the nature of universities, most notably in What Are Universities For? (2012) and Speaking of Universities (2017). In addition, he is a frequent contributor to The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, The Guardian, and other publications.