The Oxford Book of Death by D.J. Enright

Enright's own sentences have bite and ironic point. When he speaks of ''reading for this anthology,'' we must remind ourselves that his preparation has been the work of a lifetime only the richly stored mind of a humane and voracious reader could have marshaled and brought to attention so many and such varied responses. Enright remarks, ''I was moved to the thought that on no theme have writers shown themselves more lively.'' He is surely right, but the liveliness is there also and initially in the editorial prose that introduces each of the book's 14 sections. This epigraph glosses the book as a whole.

One of the epigraphs to ''The Oxford Book of Death'' is from a survivor of Belsen who finds it apt to say, ''When in death we are in the midst of life,'' rather than the opposite.

Enright, a novelist and memoirist, fine poet (his ''Collected Poems'' appeared two years ago), prolific reviewer and author of one of the most useful books on Shakespeare within recent memory (''Shakespeare and the Students,'' 1970). Acknowledgment of the editor's role in this operation should be the beginning and end of any review, especially since it is hard to think of anyone more qualified for the job than Mr. Enright's compilation of responses to death and its relatives (suicide, mourning, graveyards, funerals, hereafters, revenants, etc.) is on just about every page very much a book of life: lively, wise, deeply humorous. A good quip, though easy to come back at, since D.J. ''BUT where is 'The Oxford Book of Life'?'' a friend quipped when informed of the latest title in Oxford's ''books of'' list. Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.THE OXFORD BOOK OF DEATH Edited by D.J.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.

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The Oxford Book of Death by D.J. Enright