PENGUIN BOOKS

THE PENGUTN DICTIONARY OF LITERARY

TERMS AND LITERARY THEORY

J. A. cuddon was born in l92B.He was educatedat Douai school and

at Brasenosecollege, oxford, where, after taking a degree,he did
postgraduatework on the conceprof evil and thedevil in medievaland
Renaissanceliterature. As well as numerous essays,short stories,
articles, contributions to encyclopedias, a dozen plays and three
libretti, he also published a number of novels,notably A Muhitude of
sins, Testament of lscariot, Acts of Darkness, Tbe six wounds and
The Bride of Battersea, and two travel books, Tbe oul's watcbsong:
A study of Istanbul and rhe companion Guide to
lugoslauia. A
Dictionary of Literary Terms,the basisof this work, was begun while
he was on a fellowship at cambridge in rgl9and was completedseven
years later. In 1980he published A Dictionary of sport and Games, a
two-million word account of most of the spoms and games of the
world since 5200 rc, which cameour in paperbackin 19g1.He edired
both The Penguin Book of Ghost stories and The penguin Book of
Horror stories in 1984,and JamesHogg's The private Memoirs and
confessions of a Justified sinner in r99j. A compulsive traveller,
with a special inrerest in the Balkans and the Near East, his main
recreationswere going to the theatre,watching sport and pursuing an
amateur interest in zoology.

J. A. cuddon died in March l996.rnits obiruary The Timesdescribed

him as 'one of the great polymaths of his d"y ... rearnedand erudite
... lhe was] alwaysa pleasureto read'.