Karlin, Daniel 1953-

PERSONAL:

Born December 4, 1953, in London, England; son of Eli (in business) and Miriam (a public relations director) Karlin; married Margaret Anne Gibb, August 28, 1982 (divorced, October, 1984); married Kathleen Patricia O'Shea (a teacher), December 24, 1985. Education: Cambridge University, B.A. (with Class I honors), 1974, Ph.D., 1980; attended Merton College, Oxford, 1978-80.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Boston University, 1 Sherborn St., Boston, MA 02215.

CAREER:

Affiliated with University College, London, England; affiliated with Boston University, Boston, MA, 2005—.

MEMBER:

British Association of American Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellowship, Merton College, Oxford.

WRITINGS:

The Courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1985.

(Editor and author of introduction) Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books, Penguin (New York, NY), 1987.

(Editor) Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett: The Courtship Correspondence, 1845-1846, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

(Editor and author of introduction) Robert Browning, Selected Poems, Viking (New York, NY), 1990.

(Editor and author of introduction) H. Rider Haggard, She, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Browning's Hatreds, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

(Editor, with John Woolford) Robert Browning, The Poems of Robert Browning (two volumes), Longman (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor and author of introduction and notes) The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor and author of introduction) Rudyard Kipling, Rudyard Kipling, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Proust's English, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Author of introduction, Robert Browning: The Major Works, edited by Adam Roberts, Oxford University Press, 2005; contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including London Review of Books; contributor to BBC Radio 4 arts program, Kaleidoscope.

SIDELIGHTS:

British educator Daniel Karlin has compiled and edited several books by and about popular eighteenth-century authors and poets. His The Courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett chronicles the romance that developed between the two esteemed verse writers through some 570 letters exchanged between January 1845 and September 1846. Using the lovers' correspondence as the basis for his insights, Karlin reveals their affection, thoughts, and writing styles. He also delves into Barrett's strict upbringing and resultant psychological fears of inadequacy, her physical ailments, and her belief that Browning had delivered her from the depths of despair. Commenting on the book's academic nature, Elizabeth MacCallum of the Toronto Globe and Mail asserted that "Karlin's wry personality enlivens the dry analysis." Times Literary Supplement reviewer Barbara Hardy lauded the work, noting that Karlin presents the story "with care, concentration and a total freedom from psychological cliche." She added that Karlin's "speculation is active, and never commonplace."

Karlin wrote Browning's Hatreds after discovering the large number of instances in which hate and all of its variations and related words are referenced in the writings of Browning. He finds the number to be significant, totaling nearly seven hundred. He also discovered that a considerable number of Browning's poems have hate as a major or minor theme. Sections of the volume consider chapters that reflect hate, as in the second chapter titled "Personal Hatred," in which Karlin discusses Browning's hatred for Edward Fitzgerald after discovering a comment Fitzgerald wrote concerning the death of Browning's wife. According to Thomas J. Collins in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, nine other chapters are titled Sludgehood, Hatred and Creativity, Being Hated, Perfect Hatred, Aristophanes' Comic Weapon, Hatred's Double Face, Twist Her Neck!, Guido's Strange Colours, and Dark Tower, Siren Isle, Ruined Chapel: Landscapes of Love and Hate.

In the fourth chapter, Karlin considers the relationship between hate and creativity. Review of English Studies contributor J.R. Watson noted: "The book is extremely acute about the evil of hatred, in ‘Count Gismond’ for example, where it becomes inextricably interwoven with an erotic violence and a love of power, or in the sexual hatred which is found in ‘My Last Duchess,’ ‘The Flight of the Duchess,’ and ‘The Ring and the Book.’ In these poems, self-love cannot tolerate that which stands apart from it."

Arthur Kincaid noted in Notes and Queries: "Karlin locates Browning's fascination with hatred in his belief in the universal law of conflict. Though hatred and love are fundamental opposites, the energy animating them seems to come from the same source, and there is an ever-present danger that their equivalency will allow them to turn into each other." Collins concluded: "Browning's Hatreds makes an interesting and somewhat unusual contribution to Browning studies. Karlin's ideas are acute and informative, and his style is lively and involving."

In Proust's English, Karlin studies Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, translated as "In Search of Lost Time," and comments on the use of English in this French literary masterpiece. Although Proust could not speak English, his fondness for the world of the English caused him to include popular English words and phrases in the dialogues of his characters. These include cocktails, tennis, bridge, flirt, darling, and five o'clock tea. Karlin notes instances in which Proust used an inappropriate word or phrase, as when the narrator leaves a party wearing "snowboots," when the correct term should have been galoshes, or when he describes a large hotel as being a "palace."

Emily Eells noted in Modern Language Review: "Karlin's numerical evaluation of the English words in La Recherche establishes that ‘snob’ is the most frequently used, thus making English into an integral part of the Parisian scene." Library Journal contributor Erica Swenson called this volume a "valuable contribution to Proustian studies."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February, 1994, R.L. Brooks, review of Browning's Hatreds, p. 935; June, 2006, A.T. Vaver, review of Proust's English, p. 1830.

Contemporary Review, March, 1997, review of The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse, p. 166.

English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, spring, 2000, Elizabeth Howells, review of Rudyard Kipling.

French Studies, January 2007, Thomas Baldwin, review of Proust's English, p. 116.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), July 26, 1986, Elizabeth MacCallum, review of The Courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett.

Independent (London, England), December 27, 2005, Boyd Tonkin, review of Proust's English.

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, July, 1995, Thomas J. Collins, review of Browning's Hatreds, p. 423.

Library Journal, October 15, 2005, Erica Swenson, review of Proust's English, p. 56.

Modern Language Review, January, 1996, Susan Shatto, review of Browning's Hatreds, p. 201; January, 2007, Emily Eells, review of Proust's English, p. 242.

Modern Philology, February, 1992, review of The Courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, p. 377.

Nineteenth-Century Literature, September, 1994, Clyde de L. Ryals, review of Browning's Hatreds, p. 262.

Notes and Queries, September, 1994, Arthur Kincaid, review of Browning's Hatreds, p. 405.

Review of English Studies, August, 1993, Philip Drew, review of The Poems of Robert Browning, p. 439; February, 1996, J.R. Watson, review of Browning's Hatreds, p. 106.

Science Fiction Studies, March, 2000, Rob Latham, review of She, p. 176.

Times Literary Supplement, February 7, 1986, Barbara Hardy, review of The Courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, p. 136; November 22, 1991, Eric Griffiths, review of The Poems of Robert Browning, p. 5; February 6, 1998, review of The Penguin Book of Victorian Verse, p. 6; March 31, 2006, David Coward, "Enough for the TLS," p. 26.

Victorian Poetry, summer, 1995, Cornelia D.J. Pearsall, review of Browning's Hatreds.

Victorian Studies, autumn, 1995, Joseph Bristow, review of Browning's Hatreds, p. 118.