The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6Th
R RABAN, Jonathan (1942- ), travel writer, sailor, and academics, is without rival. His command of the novelist, born in Norfolk, the son of an Anglican vernacular, sustained by an encyclopaedic vocabulary clergyman, and educated at the University of Hull; he and a virtuoso's rhetorical repertoire, and extending subsequently lectured at the universities of Aberyst beyond French and its dialects to a dozen contem wyth and East Anglia. His works include Soft City porary languages, remains unique in French literature. (1974), a study of London life; Arabia through the His realism recognizes the physical functions of Looking Glass (1979); and Old Glory (1982), an account mankind, affirms its uncorrupted origins, trusts in of a voyage down the Mississippi. Coasting (1986) is an the effectiveness of virtuous action, and urges gaiety of account of a 1982 journey by ketch round the British mind as a supreme good. Although he was known to G. Isles, which combines autobiography, marine schol *Harvey and F. *Bacon, he was not translated into arship, and sharp political commentary. Foreign Land English until *Urquhart's magisterial version of 1653 (1985) is a novel which also returns to England, seen (Books I and II) and 1693-4 (Book III together with through the eyes of a returning exile. For Love and *Motteux's translation of Books IV and V). Thereafter Money (1987) combines essays and autobiography. his influence on English literature was widespread, Hunting Mister Heartbreak (1990) is a journey explor though particularly marked on S. *Butler, * Swift, ing American emigration and identity, and Bad Land: *Sterne, *Peacock, and *Joyce.
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