{"product_id":"9780571310944","title":"The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books","description":"\u003cp\u003eBest known for his provocative take on cultural issues in \u003ci\u003eThe Intellectuals and the Masses\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eWhat Good Are the Arts?, \u003c\/i\u003eJohn Carey describes  in this warm and funny memoir the events that formed him - an escape  from the London blitz to an idyllic rural village, army service in  Egypt, an open scholarship to Oxford and an academic career that saw him  elected, age 40, to Oxford's oldest English Literature professorship.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe  frankly portrays the snobberies and rituals of 1950s Oxford, but also  his inspiring meetings with writers and poets - Auden, Graves, Larkin,  Heaney - and his forty-year stint as a lead book-reviewer for the \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis  is a book about the joys of reading - in effect, an informal  introduction to the great works of English literature. But it is also  about war and family, and how an unexpected background can give you the  insight and the courage to say the unexpected thing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Faber and Faber","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47106467561712,"sku":"9780571310944","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780571310944_p0.jpg?v=1763719078","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780571310944","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}