Life Sentences: Literary Essays
by Joseph Epstein
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Description
Comprises essays about writers works and lives. Those covered by this volume include: Michel de Montaigne; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Jospeh Conrad; Alexander Solzhenitsyn; Robert Lowell; Edmund Wilson; Elizabeth Bishop; Ambrose Bierce; and Philip Larkin.Tags
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Member Reviews
This is Epstein's fourth collection of literary essays and the first that I have read. Included are essays on Conrad, Musil, Montaigne, Dos Passos, Bierce, Larkin and others. Epstein's style is conversational and at the same time edifying. It is also very personal as he is unafraid to air his own opinions about the authors and works that he reviews. The result, however unexpectedly and puzzlingly lenient or harsh, at least shows that literature is worth arguing over. The resulting prose is pure pleasure to read and I find every time I pick up the book I am impressed with it for that reason. Worth reading, rereading, or just dipping into from time to time.
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Literary Theory and Criticism: What Happens and Why
37 works; 5 members
Author Information
48+ Works 3,143 Members
Joseph Epstein is the author of the best-selling Snobbery and Friendship, as well as the short story collections. The Goldin Boys, Fabulous Small Jews, and Frozen in Time, among other books, and was formerly editor of the American Scholar. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, and other magazines. In 2003 he was show more awarded the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush along with John Updike, Hal Holbrook, and Robert Ballard. A longtime teacher of English at Northwestern University, he lives in Evanston, Illinois. show less
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Michel de Montaigne; C. P. Cavafy; V. S. Pritchett; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Kenneth Tynan; Elizabeth Bishop (show all 18); Joseph Conrad; Robert Musil; Edmund Wilson; La Rochefoucauld; Solzhenitsyn; Philip Larkin; Mary McCarthy; Ambrose Bierce; Robert Lowell; Theodore Dreiser; Samuel Lipman; John Dos Passsos
- Dedication
- To Nicholas Charles Epstein,
Welcome to the game, kiddo.
Classifications
- Genres
- Literature Studies and Criticism, Nonfiction, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 809 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism History, description, critical appraisal of more than two literatures
- LCC
- PS3555 .P6527 .L54 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1961-
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 47
- Popularity
- 638,458
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
