Richard Aldington

This book, first published in 1929, is an assessment of Voltaire’s life and works. It contains valuable biographical details, as well as studies of his works, philosophy, poetry, plays and literary criticism.

This book, first published in 1929, is an assessment of Voltaire’s life and works. It contains valuable biographical details, as well as studies of his works, philosophy, poetry, plays and literary criticism.

First published in 1925, and frequently compared to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, A Fool i’ the Forest is a modernist’s poetic expression of his ongoing struggles with overcoming the trauma of military service in the First World War. Taking its title from Shakespeare’s phantasmagoric Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Fool surveys three aspects of one character – ‘I’, Mezzetin and the Conjuror – as they struggle, and ultimately fail, to find a way to reconcile their differences and live with one another. Enriched with a fascinating introduction and explanatory notes by leading Aldington scholars Michael Copp and Elizabeth Vandiver, this centenary edition seeks to place A Fool firmly back into the canon of postwar poetry, from which it has been missing for too long.