Cambridge Observed - An Anthology
Cambridge means many things to many people. University and city, it has been visited, described, commented on, indeed observed from medieval to modern times. This new anthology of prose and poetry captures some of the astonishing variety of reactions to Cambridge as seen in the past and recalled by contempories of every period.
Glimpses of college life, views of impoverished students or rich undergraduates coming up, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Lord Byron for instance, are interspersed with the reflections of many twentieth-century writers - E.M. Forster, Rosamund Lehmann, Vladimir Nabokov, Sylvia Plath, Bertrand Russell, Virginia Woolf, to name a few. The history of the city, its environs, Cambridge characters and ceremonies, all have their place in this lively, intriguing and enjoyable selection. A book for browsing, dipping into, consulting, it will appeal to the many thousands of graduates and visitors from all over the world, as well as to the many "natives" and residents of Cambridge and East Anglia.
Charles Moseley and Clive Wilmer both work in the English Faculty of the University and know Cambridge and the literature about it better than most. They have delved deep and cast wide for these witty, informative and entertaining observations on Cambridge, both ancient and modern.