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An Autobiography
by
Edwin Muir
From his sheltered childhood in Orkney to the turmoil of industrial Glasgow, Edwin Muir was witness to some of the most traumatic years and events of our modern age. And yet, in his life and in his art, he was constantly haunted by the symbolic 'fable' which he longed to find beneath the surface reality of the everyday. From his dream notebooks to his travels in Eastern Eu
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Paperback
,
320 pages
Published
October 1st 2000
by Birlinn Ltd
(first published 1954)
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Community Reviews
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Edwin Muir's life as set out in his autobiography crossed many currents of the twentieth century.
He was born in the Orkneys in a farming community however the family was disconnected from a life bound by the seasons and rural traditions and moved to Glasgow when he was fourteen. There one by one his parents and siblings died over a short period of time. In his later poetry there is the sense of both an intense connection to the natural world and alienation from it. Something of that comes throug ...more
He was born in the Orkneys in a farming community however the family was disconnected from a life bound by the seasons and rural traditions and moved to Glasgow when he was fourteen. There one by one his parents and siblings died over a short period of time. In his later poetry there is the sense of both an intense connection to the natural world and alienation from it. Something of that comes throug ...more
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This is still (more than 50 years after it was written) an engrossing account of an extra ordinary life. Not so much to do with external events, more the process of recollection and the significance for Muir as a writer and thinker. There is some recent doubt over whether Muir's account of growing up on an Orkney farm would have been quite as idyllic as he portrays it. In a sense this doesn't really matter: the book is very much concerned with what the intentions are behind writing autobiography
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An excellent poetic account of a life begun on an Orkney farm and later including time in Prague and Dresden amongst other cities. Muir with his wife provided early and impressive translations of Kafka and wrote some lovely poetry.
This book was an excellent read. It is not an easy read. While the author’s life has been interesting it is his careful use of the language and his reflection on his life that makes this autobiography so appealing to me. I read about this book in something Wendell Berry wrote - and I don’t think I would have paid any attention to it otherwise. I’m glad I did pay attention to it. This book - more than almost any other I’ve read made me see his own time period for what it must have seemed and felt
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I could do without the Viennese / psychotherapy interlude, but the opening chapters on growing up lonely in the Orkney Islands made me woozy with delight.
A neglected classic from the 20th century Scottish poet and translator of Kafka. Deserves to be reissued. Perhaps NYRB will add it to their list...?
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Edwin Muir, Orcadian poet, novelist and translator noted, together with his wife Willa Anderson for making
Franz Kafka
available in English.
More about Edwin Muir...
