Reynard the Fox

Overview

A phenomenal bestseller after its publication in 1919, this work was widely seen as a masterful poetic response to the horrors of World War I. A long narrative poem about a foxhunt, the work also evokes the beauty of English countryside and considers the meaning of courage. The poem was recorded by the author and adapted as a radio play much-beloved by the British public, and although the poem does not overtly criticize foxhunting, it prompted national debate on the subject. Out of print for years, the poem is now newly corrected from the original manuscript and presented alongside other pastoral writing by Masefield, including the essay "Fox-Hunting."

Reviews

"The finest English narrative poem of the century." —L. A. G. Strong

"A classic." —Muriel Spark, author, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

"Probably the greatest of all hunting poems and a classic of English narrative verse." —Daily Mail

Author Biography

John Masefield was England's poet laureate from 1930 to 1967 and the author of poems, plays, novels, and children's books. His best-known and most anthologized poem, "Sea Fever," comes from Salt-Water Ballads, published in 1902. Philip W. Errington is an antiquarian book expert at Sotheby's in London and the editor of The Journal of the John Masefield Society. He is the author of John Masefield, The “Great Auk” of English Literature.