By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Let’s begin, as I’m fond of doing, with a question. Who is being described here? This ancient Greek poet, associated with the island of Lesbos, is regarded by some as the founder of lyric poetry. However, little of their poetry has survived, so we know them more by their classical reputation than by their work.
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reviews John Plotz’s personal reading of a fantasy classic by Ursula K. Le Guin
The American author Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) is widely regarded as one of the finest authors of what is broadly termed ‘speculative fiction’. During the course of her long writing career, she wrote novels and short stories in both the fantasy and science-fiction genres. She has also long been praised as one of the greatest stylists within these genres, with an ability to pick up, as Chesterton said of Robert Louis Stevenson, the right word on the end of her pen.