Michèle Mendelssohn is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and Deputy Director at the Rothermere American InstituteDenis Flannery is Associate Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Leeds

'Alan Hollinghurst is Britain's finest living novelist, and this volume brilliantly demonstrates why. Whether exploring his depictions of contemporary gay culture or teasing out his complex relations with precursors such as Ronald Firbank, E.M. Forster and Henry James, the essays assembled here do rich and rewarding justice to the 'line of beauty' that unfolds in Hollinghurst's wonderfully inventive writing.'Mark Ford, University College London

• Introduction: A dialogue on influence - Denis Flannery and Michèle Mendelssohn1. Hollinghurst's poetry - Bernard O'Donoghue2. The touch of reading in Hollinghurst's early prose - Angus Brown3. Poetry, parody, porn and prose - Michèle Mendelssohn4. Race, empire and The Swimming Pool Library - John McLeod5. The Stranger's Child and The Aspern Papers: queering origin stories and questioning the visitable past - Julie Rivkin6. Ostentatiously discreet: bisexual camp in The Stranger's Child - Joseph Ronan7. Hollow auguries: eccentric genealogies in The Folding Star and The Spell - Robert L. Caserio8. Some properties of fiction: value and fantasy in Hollinghurst's house of fiction - Geoff Gilbert9. Cinema in the library - Alan O'Leary10. Using Racine in 1990: or, translating theatre in time - Denis Flannery11. 'Who are you? What the fuck are you doing here?': queer debates and contemporary connections - Kaye Mitchell12. What can I say? Secrets in fiction and biography - Hermione Lee interviews Alan HollinghurstIndex

Michèle Mendelssohn is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and Deputy Director at the Rothermere American InstituteDenis Flannery is Associate Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Leeds

'Alan Hollinghurst is Britain's finest living novelist, and this volume brilliantly demonstrates why. Whether exploring his depictions of contemporary gay culture or teasing out his complex relations with precursors such as Ronald Firbank, E.M. Forster and Henry James, the essays assembled here do rich and rewarding justice to the 'line of beauty' that unfolds in Hollinghurst's wonderfully inventive writing.'Mark Ford, University College London

• Introduction: A dialogue on influence - Denis Flannery and Michèle Mendelssohn1. Hollinghurst's poetry - Bernard O'Donoghue2. The touch of reading in Hollinghurst's early prose - Angus Brown3. Poetry, parody, porn and prose - Michèle Mendelssohn4. Race, empire and The Swimming Pool Library - John McLeod5. The Stranger's Child and The Aspern Papers: queering origin stories and questioning the visitable past - Julie Rivkin6. Ostentatiously discreet: bisexual camp in The Stranger's Child - Joseph Ronan7. Hollow auguries: eccentric genealogies in The Folding Star and The Spell - Robert L. Caserio8. Some properties of fiction: value and fantasy in Hollinghurst's house of fiction - Geoff Gilbert9. Cinema in the library - Alan O'Leary10. Using Racine in 1990: or, translating theatre in time - Denis Flannery11. 'Who are you? What the fuck are you doing here?': queer debates and contemporary connections - Kaye Mitchell12. What can I say? Secrets in fiction and biography - Hermione Lee interviews Alan HollinghurstIndex

Michèle Mendelssohn is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and Deputy Director at the Rothermere American InstituteDenis Flannery is Associate Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Leeds

'Alan Hollinghurst is Britain's finest living novelist, and this volume brilliantly demonstrates why. Whether exploring his depictions of contemporary gay culture or teasing out his complex relations with precursors such as Ronald Firbank, E.M. Forster and Henry James, the essays assembled here do rich and rewarding justice to the 'line of beauty' that unfolds in Hollinghurst's wonderfully inventive writing.'Mark Ford, University College London

• Introduction: A dialogue on influence - Denis Flannery and Michèle Mendelssohn1. Hollinghurst's poetry - Bernard O'Donoghue2. The touch of reading in Hollinghurst's early prose - Angus Brown3. Poetry, parody, porn and prose - Michèle Mendelssohn4. Race, empire and The Swimming Pool Library - John McLeod5. The Stranger's Child and The Aspern Papers: queering origin stories and questioning the visitable past - Julie Rivkin6. Ostentatiously discreet: bisexual camp in The Stranger's Child - Joseph Ronan7. Hollow auguries: eccentric genealogies in The Folding Star and The Spell - Robert L. Caserio8. Some properties of fiction: value and fantasy in Hollinghurst's house of fiction - Geoff Gilbert9. Cinema in the library - Alan O'Leary10. Using Racine in 1990: or, translating theatre in time - Denis Flannery11. 'Who are you? What the fuck are you doing here?': queer debates and contemporary connections - Kaye Mitchell12. What can I say? Secrets in fiction and biography - Hermione Lee interviews Alan HollinghurstIndex