
Tarr
Wyndham Lewis(Author)
Scott W. Klein(Editor)
Oxford University Press
1st Edition
Published on 9. September 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-19-956720-1 (ISBN)
Description
'The nearest the general run get to art is Action: sex is their form of art: the battle for existence is their picture.'
Tarr tells the blackly comic story of the lives and loves of two artists, played out against the backdrop of Paris before the start of the First World War - the English enfant terrible Frederick Tarr, and the middle-aged German Otto Kreisler, a failed painter who finds himself in a widening spiral of militaristic self-destruction. When both become interested in the same two women - Bertha Lunken, a conventional German, and Anastasya Vasek, the ultra-modern international devotee of 'swagger sex' - Wyndham Lewis sets the stage for a scathing satire of national and social pretensions, the fraught relationship between men and women, and the incompatibilities of art and life.
In his introduction and notes Scott W. Klein explores Lewis's stylistic experimentation within the context of avant-garde movements in painting, and offers new insights into Tarr as a work of mordent wit and enduringly ferocious irony.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Tarr tells the blackly comic story of the lives and loves of two artists, played out against the backdrop of Paris before the start of the First World War - the English enfant terrible Frederick Tarr, and the middle-aged German Otto Kreisler, a failed painter who finds himself in a widening spiral of militaristic self-destruction. When both become interested in the same two women - Bertha Lunken, a conventional German, and Anastasya Vasek, the ultra-modern international devotee of 'swagger sex' - Wyndham Lewis sets the stage for a scathing satire of national and social pretensions, the fraught relationship between men and women, and the incompatibilities of art and life.
In his introduction and notes Scott W. Klein explores Lewis's stylistic experimentation within the context of avant-garde movements in painting, and offers new insights into Tarr as a work of mordent wit and enduringly ferocious irony.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Reviews / Votes
This is a valuable edition. * William Baker, Years Work in English Studies *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
one map
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
269 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-956720-1 (9780199567201)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Persons
Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was an artist, novelist, and critic. He was the leader of the Vorticist movement in art and, with Ezra Pound, edited the only two issues of Blast, the great manifesto of the modern art movement and one of the seminal texts of twentieth-century modernism. As well as Tarr, Lewis's novels include The Apes of God and The Revenge for Love.
Author
Editor
Associate Professor of English, Wake Forest University, North Carolina

