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Jill

By Philip Larkin
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3.56 goodreads logo

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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Jill by Philip Larkin is set during World War II and follows John Kemp, a young, idealistic student arriving at Oxford University for the first time. Amidst the backdrop of academia and war, John invents an imaginary sister named Jill to cope with loneliness and the pressures of university life. This novel explores themes of identity, friendship, and the complexities of growing up in a rapidly changing world.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate poignant coming-of-age stories set against the backdrop of wartime England. It offers a thoughtful exploration of innocence, identity, and the impacts of social class on personal growth, making it a compelling read for those intrigued by character-driven narratives.

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A coming-of-age classic by the 'best-loved English poetof the past 100 years. (Sunday Times) published to celebrateLarkin's centenary.

A coming-of-age classic by the 'best-loved English poet of the past 100 years. (Sunday Times) published to celebrate Larkin's centenary.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Jill is Philip Larkin's first novel, originally published in 1946. A subtle and moving account of a young English undergraduate from the provinces, this portrait of Oxford during the war is now regarded by many critics as a classic of its kind.

Michaelmas term, 1940. 18-year-old John Kemp has come down from Lancashire to Oxford University to begin his scholarship studying English. But when he invents an imaginary sister to win the attention of a rich but unreliable 'friend', and then falls in love for real, undergraduate life becomes its own strange world.

"Absolutely contemporary - perhaps even prophetic." - Joyce Carol Oates

"Remarkable. A book about innocence." - Simon Garfield

"A cryptic literary manifesto [about] discovering a literary personality, and the consolation art can provide." - Andrew Motion

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Jill by Philip Larkin is praised for its emotional control, precise language, and keen observation. The novel explores themes of anticipated failure and sadness, while also serving as a literary manifesto about discovering one's literary identity and the consolations of art.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780571225828

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 March 2005

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Faber & Faber

Edition: Main - Re-issue

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 17.0mm

Width: 17.0mm

Height: 123.0mm

Weight: 205g

Pages: 256

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction Philip Larkin

About the Author

Philip Larkin was born in Coventry in 1922 and was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, and St John's College, Oxford. As well as his volumes of poems, which include The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows, he wrote two novels, Jill and A Girl in Winter, and two books of collected journalism: All What Jazz: A Record Library, and Required Writing: Miscellaneous Prose. He worked as a librarian at the University of Hull from 1955 until his death in 1985. He was the best-loved poet of his generation, and the recipient of innumerable honours, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, and the WHSmith Award.

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    High Windows, Larkin's final collection of poems, showcases his ability to adapt contemporary speech rhythms and everyday vocabulary to subtle metrical patterns and poetic forms. Many of the poems in this collection, which includes some of his best-known pieces such as 'The Old Fools', 'This Be the Verse', 'The Explosion', and the title poem, reveal his preoccupation with death and...
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  • Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
    Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica
    Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica captures the unique relationship between Philip Larkin and Monica Jones, who met at University College Leicester in the autumn of 1946. At the time, they were both twenty-four; he was the newly-appointed assistant librarian and she, an English lecturer. In 1950, Larkin moved to Belfast and later to Hull, while Monica remained in Leicester. Despite...
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  • The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin
    This entirely new edition brings together all of Philip Larkin's poems. In addition to those in Collected Poems (1988), and in the Early Poems and Juvenilia (2005), some unpublished pieces from Larkin's typescripts and workbooks are included, as well as verse (by turns scurrilous, satirical, affectionate, and sentimental) tucked away in his letters. The manuscript and printed sources have been...
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  • Collected Poems
    This edition of Larkin's poems presents his four published books The North Ship, The Less Deceived, The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows in their original sequence. The text also includes an appendix of poems that Larkin published in other places, from his juvenilia to his final years. Preserving everything that he published in his lifetime, this collection of poems returns...
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  • Talking in Bed
    The essential pocket edition of this most beloved and quoted of poets. Our almost-instinct almost true: What will survive of us is love. In lines perfectly constructed and as beautiful as they are plain-spoken, Philip Larkin found a way of delineating our most difficult emotions — giving them back to us in images and formulations that help us both comprehend...
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  • Philip Larkin Poems
    For the first time, Faber publish a selection from the poetry of Philip Larkin. Drawing on Larkin's four collections and on his uncollected poems. Chosen by Martin Amis. Many poets make us smile; how many poets make us laugh - or, in that curious phrase, laugh out loud (as if there's another way of doing it)? Who else uses an...
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