Bid Me to Live - by H D (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Scholars and students alike will turn to Caroline Zilboorg's edition of H.D.'s Bid Me to Live for an introduction that provides heretofore unavailable insights and annotations that elucidate the book's countless literary and biblical allusions. A useful, thorough, and eloquent study."--Michel W. Pharand, author of Bernard Shaw and the French

"Zilboorg's introduction and notes are excellent, thorough, and accurate--the work of an unparalleled expert in the field. This edition makes a major contribution to H.D. and modernist studies."--Jane Augustine, editor of H.D.'s The Mystery In the riveting and intense Bid Me to Live, H.D. documents her traumatic experiences during WWI on which she blamed a number of personal tragedies, including a stillborn child, the end of her marriage, and her pained relationship with D. H. Lawrence. This critical edition returns the novel to print for the first time in a generation.

Editor Caroline Zilboorg offers invaluable background information and perspectives that facilitate a rich and rewarding reading of a complex novel. Including an introduction that recounts the autobiographical narrative on which the book is based, a biographical key to all the major characters, explanations of textual references, and photographs of all the central figures in the text, this is a powerful resource for understanding and appreciating one of the Imagist author's most accessible novels. H.D. (born Hilda Doolittle, 1886-1961) is an American writer whose work exerted enormous influence on modernist poetry and prose. Caroline Zilboorg is an independent scholar based in France. She is a life member of Clare Hall at Cambridge University and has published a number of books, including Richard Aldington and H.D.: Their Lives in Letters.

Review Quotes

"Bid Me to Live is [H.D.'s] finest and most moving novel, and Caroline Zilboorg's elegant new scholarly edition is a timely reminder of why she was acclaimed for her sinuous prose, which wrestles compellingly with the fault lines of gender, sexuality and psychology."--Women: A Cultural Review


"Demonstrates an avant-garde mode of writing about the Great War, depicting the experience of non-combatants. Zilboorg's excellent critical edition will help introduce this fascinating, much underrated modernist text to a new readership."--Modern Language Review

About the Author

Caroline Zilboorg is an independent scholar based in France. She is a life member of Clare Hall at Cambridge University and has published a number of books, including Richard Aldington and H.D.: Their Lives in Letters.