Blasted with Antiquity

'Among the many joys of this inspiringly high-spirited heart-to-heart with the literature of ageing, is the zest with which it seizes the opportunity of age to read again for pleasure, the better to enjoy what's left of life, or the better to endure it. If getting old has consolations, David Ellis's engrossing conversations with works we are strangers to, or thought we knew but didn't, is one of them.' - Howard Jacobson, novelist and essayist 'Blasted With Antiquity is a full-throated celebration of the literary imagination, and of how books and reading - those cherished, old-fashioned tools - provide us with rich aids to thought about age and aging.' - Professor Andrea Charise, University of Toronto, author of The Aesthetics of Senescence: Aging, Population, and the Nineteenth-Century British Novel 'Witty, insightful, and ambitious, Blasted with Antiquity reflects on ageing and old age across the Western literary canon. Organized around themes such as retirement, nostalgia and self-consciousness and sex, Ellis's book is a delight to read - a significant publication for scholars in literary age studies and an accessible volume for anyone interested in literary representations of growing older.' - Dr Jacob Jewusiak, Newcastle University, author of Aging, Duration, and the English Novel 'David Ellis's wit, honesty, humanity, learning lightly worn, and relish for dark humour make Blasted with Antiquity a pleasure to read. His approach to aspects of old age such as the loss of power and position, nostalgia for the past, the experience of physical weakness and the will to control, through well written and accessible discussions of Shakespeare, Stendhal, Chaucer, Austen, Philip Larkin, James Joyce and Alan Bennett and many others, make this book highly enjoyable and even exhilarating. Ellis has written a new classic.' - Professor Janet Montefiore, University of Kent