Empson on Biography

30:1 Reviews EMPSON ON BIOGRAPHY WiUiam Empson. Using Biography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984. $17.50 William Empson wrote the essays in this volume between 1958 and 1982 yet despite their composition over twenty-four years, they exhibit no flagging of Empson's critical spirit, acerbic tone or literary acumen. A rigorous energy surprising in its resourcefulness and depth sustains his treatment of a variety of subjects. Vigorously, Empson attacks unacceptable readings of writers he admires. Forthright and practical, the essays in Using Biography are refreshingly direct without being dogmatic. The title itself reflects the activism of Empson's criticism. His stress is on using biography, on its direct application to texts in order to illuminate, contextualize or define the meaning of a work. Biographical detail is fundamental to his enterprise and in many instances is the basis for his critical assessment. Marvell's activities as tutor, Dryden's practice of religion, Eliot's problems with The Wasteland, Joyce's ambivalent pontics all find a central place in Empson's evaluation of their writing. The intentions of an author are crucial for Empson who uses biography to explore connections between the life and the work. Empathy with the author is a constant but admittedly difficult goal which for Empson enhances understanding. But rather than develop his approach into a theory, Empson provides a series of examples, "discoveries" as he calls them, which may prove useful in formulating a biographical approach to literature. But what remains essential for Empson is an informed, close-reading of the text. Three out of six authors in Using Biography are of interest to readers of ELT: Yeats, Eliot and Joyce. The early sections on Marvell, Dryden and Fielding complement the later sections in their similarity of style and approach where comments on prosody, culture and composition unite to give sustained interpretations contra received opinions. Empson, it seems, is always challenging a received opinion. A minor but interesting example is Marvell's curious death. Not poison administered by a London doctor for a fever but a malaria-like disease was, apparently, the cause. But how did Marvell become Ul? Not by examining drainage ditches in Hull some three weeks before his death when he would have been warned of the dangerous disease, but by a casual exit from an evening house party in Hull and walking beyond the city gates "indifferent to the fatal marshes" (94). The clarity of presentation and consideration of detail are convincing. With Yeats, Eliot and Joyce, however, Empson takes up different matters. The Yeats chapter deals with variants for the Byzantium poems, expressed in the characteristically sharp Empson tone. Responding to criticism that Yeats rejected his earlier "high spiritual tone" in these later works, Empson declares that Yeats was "too stubborn minded to change one of his major beliefs 114 30:1 Reviews without telling people so" (170). A careful, extended reading of "Byzantium," however, displays a more sympathetic approach with textual composition supporting critical interpretation (181, for example). Childhood memories and biography also figure in Empson's reading. Composition and criticism are the foundation of the Eliot chapter. Poetic sketches united into a single theme of an approaching doom express Empson's reading of The Wasteland, contrary to the theme of personal grievance associated with Eliot's decision to live in England and marriage to Vivienne Haig-Wood presented in the facsimile edition. For Empson the central image of the poem is that of the father. Religion and Eliot's anti-semitism supplement additional textual concerns. The Joyce section contains Empson's most recent essay, "The Ultimate Novel" (1982). The preceding 1970 essay on Joyce's intentions sustains the view that Joyce was constantly opposed to Christianity despite the argument of more recent critics. The 1982 essay challenges Hugh Kenner's view that Stephen Dedalus sees blindly throughout Ulysses. Defending Stephen and his potential to be an artist, Empson reclaims the importance of his character for the novel. Molly, Stephen's possible involvement with her, and the importance of Nora Joyce for the novel come under equal scrutiny. Empson concludes that Bloom's offer to Stephen to join him at #7 Eccles Street is an implicit invitation and approval...