Philip Larkin and His Audiences

Philip Larkin can consistently be found at the top of lists of England's best or favorite poets, yet he is widely regarded as a misanthropic, provincial recluse. Philip Larkin and His Audiences takes as its starting point the apparent disconnection between the public love for Larkin and the critical revulsion for what he has come to stand for. By carefully considering poems from Larkin's earliest publications through his last great work, 'Aubade', this volume argues that the most condemning...