Thomas Kinsella: The Peppercanister Poems

Reviews: ‘Derval Tubridy’s Thomas Kinsella: The Peppercanister Poems is only the fourth book to examine the body of this remarkable poet’s work, and it is by far the best. Tubridy maintains an impressive balance between scholarly analysis and intuitive appreciation.’ Floyd Skloot, Studies: An Irish Quarterly 90 (359) 2001. ‘Kinsella expects the reader to engage as fully as he or she can with his work. Derval Tubridy is that kind of reader. For anyone unsure about how to read Kinsella's poetry her book is enormously valuable.’ Maurice Harmon Irish University Review 31 (1) 2001. ‘[Derval Tubridy] is wholly appreciative of Kinsella's experiment and responds to it with fluent explicative prose, helpfully documenting the contexts from which the poems arose, and examining earlier drafts and notes to which the poet has allowed her access.’ Irish Studies Review 9 (2) 2001. ‘Tubridy's lucid book will work a treat for student and general reader alike because it gives a trusty guide to the Kinsella districts, both inner and outer.’ Gerald Dawe Irish Times April 2001. ‘[Kinsella's work] comes under the sober scrutiny of Derval Tubridy in a study without hyperbole or any grandiose characterisation of her subject.’ Books Ireland Summer 200.1 ‘From the beginning of this book the control which the critic exercises over her material is clear. One of the great benefits of the variety of detail which Tubridy brings to bear on her subject is that no single influence is seen to provide a key to Kinsella's work, a reductive tendency that has beset less thoughtful critics... the affinity between critic and poet ensures a valuable addition to the study of Kinsella's work.’ Irish Literary Supplement, Spring 2002. ‘The first critical analysis to use fully the Emory archive and which, as a result, pieces together a more complete and thorough understanding of Kinsella's later poetry than any of its predecessors.’ Nua: Studies in Contemporary Irish Writing Oct 2003