Equivocal Spirits

240 pp., 5.5 x 9

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-4174-7
Published: November 1987

Buy this Book

Paperback $50.00

To purchase online via an independent bookstore, visit Bookshop.org

This first full-length study of drinking as it is depicted in literature is an interdisciplinary study of science and literature which explores the ways in which the scientific knowledge of alcoholism may enlighten the reader as well as the means by which literature may confirm, intensify, dramatize, extend, and occasionally even challenge empirical studies. Gilmore shows that literature conveys the complex struggle in an alcoholic fictional character or a real person in a way that science cannot.

Originally published in 1987.

A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Reviews

"Most critics who have considered the ties between writing and drink in this century have done so in piecemeal fashion, usually with the stress on biography rather than the works themselves. Thomas Gilmore is the first to address the subject broadly and with attention to its specifically literary implications, and he does so with deftness and authority."--Richard K. Cross, University of Maryland

"An original, highly rewarding book. In it, Thomas Gilmore enriches our understanding both of a fascinating theme in modern literature and of a pervasive problem in modern life."--Modern Fiction Studies