'The Cuckold and the Vampires is Jennifer Maiden’s extraordinary over-32,700-word subjective essay on aspects of conservative political manipulation of art and literature, including the experimental, and the conservatives' creation of conflict - ranging from Medieval to Ruskin, from Pollock to contemporary Australia. Maiden has observed: ‘One purpose of the essay is to try to warn against microcosmic unwariness in a situation where overwhelming macrocosmic forces are at play…there are all sorts of twists and turns during the course of my essay. My focus is on the wider causes of damage and the nature of power in art… we will continue to try here to respect what Pinter considered mandatory and to smash the mirror of the microcosm, to try to look at the macrocosm behind it.’ The essay is immense in scope and immensely enjoyable, astute and witty.'
(Source: publisher's blurb)
