The Alluring Problem: An Essay on Irony

by D. J. Enright (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1986

  $3.25

  When Jonathan Swift suggested in 1729, in his pamphlet A Modest Proposal, that the Irish might survive overpopulation if only they could be persuaded to eat their own babies, the Irishman was employing that favorite tool of writers and wits: irony. Now, in an entertaining and intriguing new book, D. J. Enright, acclaimed editor of The Oxford Book of Death, has turned his attention to the practice of irony and its many manifestations in both literature and life. Aiming to pursue personal ironies, both verbal and situational, Enright has observed their twists and turns in his own inimitable style. The author takes a fresh look at irony in the works of Shakespeare, Austen, James, Proust and Freud, and a briefer look at such conspicous practitioners as Swift, Fielding and Hardy. He goes on to review the use of irony, or what resembles it, in the works of Pope, Dickens, Conrad, Brecht and other more recent writers. Religion, politics, censorship, love and death are all mined for their rich lode of ironic situations. Among other themes discussed are the perils of irony unrecognised and irony wrongly presumed; the risks run by self-ironists; and the questions Does romantic irony exist? and Must irony have a victim? Can it be sweet?. Enright's reflections vary from musings on the absurdities of acronyms like AIDS and CREEP to a consideration of the apparent absence of irony in China. Although irony commonly generates laughter, some have observed that it can be no laughing matter. But the author concludes this witty and elegant book by noting that, while irony is an ambiguous gift... it is a gift all the same.

• Used

  Paperback
  1988

  $3.25

  The author - a poet, critic and novelist - concerns himself not with theories of irony, but with its practice, as attack or defence, in both literature and life. He examines individual ironies, verbal and situational, and attempts to gauge their outcome in various spheres: religion, politics, censorship, love and death. He looks at irony as seen in Shakespeare, Goethe, Proust, James, Freud, Swift, Fielding, Dickens, Conrad, Mann, Brecht and more recent writers. He discusses irony unrecognized and irony wrongly presumed. The study views irony as a style and as an approach to life and defends it as an often misunderstood attitude. Enright considers both the objections brought against irony and its role in humour.