Arnold Charles Kettle (17 March 1916 – 24 December 1986)Turner, John R. (2004). 'Kettle, Arnold Charles (1916–1986)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 23 September 2004 (online edition). Retrieved 30 December 2022. was a British Marxist literary critic, most noted for his authorship of the two-volume work ''An Introduction to the English Novel'' (1951). Kettle was born in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

, London, and was educated at

Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood Small things grow in harmony , established = , closed = , coordinates = , pushpin_map = , type = Independent day school , religion = Church o ...

and

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

. Influenced by

F. R. Leavis Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis (14 July 1895 – 14 April 1978) was an English literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York. Leavis ra ...

in his academic writings, he was a man of the left politically and joined the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

in 1936, remaining a member for the rest of his life. He was the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

’s first professor of literature and worked there until his retirement in 1981.

Hobsbawm, Eric Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work. ...

(1987). 'Master of Arts bituary of Arnold Kettle, ''Marxism Today'', February, p. 29

Selected publications

* Kettle, A. (1951). ''An Introduction to the English Novel'', Volume I (to George Eliot) and (1953) ''An Introduction to the English Novel'', Volume II (Henry James to the present day), Hutchinson University Library. * Kettle, A., Kott, J., & Taborski, B. (1965). ''Shakespeare in a changing world''. * Kettle, A. (Ed.) (1972). ''The nineteenth-century novel: critical essays and documents''. Heinemann Educational Publishers. * Kettle, A. (1991). ''Literature and Liberation: Selected Essays''. Manchester University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kettle, Arnold 1916 births 1986 deaths Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge British literary critics Communist Party of Great Britain members Literary theorists