Synopses & Reviews
With an Introduction by Salman Rushdie For more than fifty years, The Paris Review has brought us revelatory and revealing interviews with the literary lights of our age. This critically acclaimed series continues with another eclectic lineup, including Philip Roth, Ezra Pound, Haruki Murakami, Marilynne Robinson, Stephen Sondheim, E. B. White, Maya Angelou, William Styron and more. In each of these remarkable extended conversations, the authors touch every corner of the writing life, sharing their ambitions, obsessions, inspirations, disappointments, and the most idiosyncratic details of their writing habits.
The collected interviews of The Paris Reviews are, as Gary Shteyngart put it, "a colossal literary event."
The Paris Review was published early and important work by Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, Jeffrey Eugenides, William T. Vollmann, and many other defining writers of the past half century. Some of the magazine's exceptional stories, poems, and conversations have been collected in The Paris Review Book of People with Problems as well The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms and The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, the Art of Writing, and Everything Else in the World Since 1953. Since The Paris Review was founded in 1953, it has given us invaluable conversations with the greatest writers of our age, vivid self-portraits that are themselves works of finely crafted literature. From Philip Roth's claim that 'a writer needs his poisons' and the antidote is often a book,' to Marilynne Robinson's confession that 'I really am incapable of discipline. I write when something makes a strong claim on me,' The Paris Review has elicited revelatory thoughts from our most accomplished novelists, poets, and playwrights. Why does Maya Angelou write with a Bible and a bottle of sherry at her side? What inspires Haruki Murakami's surrealist imagination? Why did Jack Kerouac embrace haiku? In these pages of The Paris Review, writers give more than simple answers; they offer uncommon candor, depth, and wit in interviews that have become the gold standard of the literary Q&A. With an introduction by Salman Rushdie, this volume brings together another rich, varied crop of literary voices, including William Styron, Orhan Pamuk, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, Paul Auster, P. G. Wodhouse, and more. "A Colossal literary event," as Gary Shteyngart put it, The Paris Review Interviews, IV, is an indispensable treasure of wisdom from the world's literary masters. "The most remarkable and extensive interviewing project we possess . . . A series of excursions, alternately purposeful and capricious, with side trips, stops for tea, and mystifications."The New York Times
"As The Paris Review Interviews reveals, there is an art to the interview and a value to what it brings . . . In the best interviews, the exchange of question and answer brings the authors to life."The Wall Street Journal
"Utterly absorbing . . . The interviews are all fascinating and often quite funny."The Boston Globe
"A small treasure. The interviews are literary landmarks, and the gossip, humor, ideas, and practical advice dispensed are bracing."San Francisco Chronicle
"The unguarded moment . . . that's the holy grail for any interviewer trying to discover what makes a writer tick. The Paris Review has a long history of delivering such moments in the author interviews it has conducted over the past half century."The Seattle Times
"Fascinating interviews . . . [The subjects] discuss their writing and methods with detail and candidness found nowhere else. While lit fans will undoubtedly be satisfied, aspiring authors will glean tremendous insight from these masters of the craft."The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
"A stimulating, funny, and provocative snapshot of five decades' worth of (mostly) American literary history . . . The resulting conversations are luminous and often revelatory."Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Here is a canon of great minds . . . A fascinating attempt at getting to the heart of how writers work."Financial Times (London)
"This book will intrigue and delight any serious reader or writer. It may even inspire."The Times Literary Supplement (London)
Review
"The Paris Review books should be given out at dinner parties, readings, riots, weddings, galas -- shindigs of every shape. And they're perfect for the classroom too, from high schools all the way to MFA programs. In fact, I run a whole semester-long creative writing class based on the interviews. How else would I get the world's greatest living writers, living and dead, to come into the classroom with their words of wisdom, folly and fury? These books are wonderful, provocative, indispensible."--Colum McCann, novelist and Hunter College professor
"A small treasure. The interviews are literary landmarks, and the gossip, humor, ideas, and practical advice dispensed are bracing."--San Francisco Chronicle
"The most remarkable and extensive interviewing project we possess."--The New York Times
"Utterly absorbing . . . They are all fascinating and often quite funny."--The Boston Globe
"Groundbreaking, eclectic, indispensable Q&As."--Elle
Review
and#8220;The World of Yesterday is ostensibly an autobiography, but it is much more than that. In this remarkably fine new translation, Anthea Bell perfectly captures Stefan Zweigand#8217;s glorious evocation of a lost world, Viennaand#8217;s golden age, in which he grew up and flourished.and#8221;and#8212;Ronald Harwood, award-winning author, playwright, and screenwriter
Review
and#8220;The World of Yesterday is one of the greatest memoirs of the twentieth century, as perfect in its evocation of the world Zweig loved as it is in its portrayal of how that world was destroyed.and#8221;and#8212;David Hare, awardand#8211;winning playwright and director of film and theater
Review
and#8220;The very success with which this book evokes both the beauty of the past and the fatality of its passing is what gives it tragic effectiveness. It is not so much a memoir of a life as it is the memento of an age, and the author seems, in his own phrase, to be the narrator at an illustrated lecture. The illustrations are provided by time, but his choice is brilliant and the narration is evocative.and#8221;and#8212;New Republic
Review
"The autobiography of the internationally famous biographer and dramatist is a chronicle of three ages: the golden days of Vienna that ended with World War I; that war and its aftermath; and the Hitler years. Three ages do come to life in Zweig's book."and#8212;Publishers Weekly
Review
"When I opened it, Iand#160;immediately felt that rare thrill one experiences when meeting a great book."and#8212;Newsday.com
Review
"A searing memoir."and#8212;Intelligent Life
Synopsis
With an Introduction by Salman Rushdie For more than fifty years, The Paris Review has brought us revelatory and revealing interviews with the literary lights of our age. This critically acclaimed series continues with another eclectic lineup, including Philip Roth, Ezra Pound, Haruki Murakami, Marilynne Robinson, Stephen Sondheim, E. B. White, Maya Angelou, William Styron and more. In each of these remarkable extended conversations, the authors touch every corner of the writing life, sharing their ambitions, obsessions, inspirations, disappointments, and the most idiosyncratic details of their writing habits.
The collected interviews of The Paris Reviews are, as Gary Shteyngart put it, "a colossal literary event."
Synopsis
For more than 50 years, "The Paris Review" has published revelatory and revealing interviews with the literary lights of our age. This critically acclaimed series continues with another eclectic lineup, including Philip Roth, Ezra Pound, Haruki Murakami, Maya Angelou, William Styron, and others.
Synopsis
With an Introduction by Salman Rushdie For more than fifty years, The Paris Review has brought us revelatory and revealing interviews with the literary lights of our age. This critically acclaimed series continues with another eclectic lineup, including Philip Roth, Ezra Pound, Haruki Murakami, Marilynne Robinson, Stephen Sondheim, E. B. White, Maya Angelou, William Styron and more. In each of these remarkable extended conversations, the authors touch every corner of the writing life, sharing their ambitions, obsessions, inspirations, disappointments, and the most idiosyncratic details of their writing habits.
The collected interviews of The Paris Reviews are, as Gary Shteyngart put it, "a colossal literary event."
The Paris Review was published early and important work by Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, Jeffrey Eugenides, William T. Vollmann, and many other defining writers of the past half century. Some of the magazine's exceptional stories, poems, and conversations have been collected in The Paris Review Book of People with Problems as well The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms and The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, the Art of Writing, and Everything Else in the World Since 1953. Since The Paris Review was founded in 1953, it has given us invaluable conversations with the greatest writers of our age, vivid self-portraits that are themselves works of finely crafted literature. From Philip Roth's claim that 'a writer needs his poisons' and the antidote is often a book,' to Marilynne Robinson's confession that 'I really am incapable of discipline. I write when something makes a strong claim on me,' The Paris Review has elicited revelatory thoughts from our most accomplished novelists, poets, and playwrights. Why does Maya Angelou write with a Bible and a bottle of sherry at her side? What inspires Haruki Murakami's surrealist imagination? Why did Jack Kerouac embrace haiku? In these pages of The Paris Review, writers give more than simple answers; they offer uncommon candor, depth, and wit in interviews that have become the gold standard of the literary Q&A. With an introduction by Salman Rushdie, this volume brings together another rich, varied crop of literary voices, including William Styron, Orhan Pamuk, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, Paul Auster, P. G. Wodhouse, and more. "A Colossal literary event," as Gary Shteyngart put it, The Paris Review Interviews, IV, is an indispensable treasure of wisdom from the world's literary masters.
Synopsis
By the author who inspired Wes Andersonand#8217;sand#160;2014 film,
The Grand Budapest HotelWritten as both a recollection of the past and a warning for future generations, The World of Yesterday recalls the golden age of literary Viennaand#8212;its seeming permanence, its promise, and its devastating fall.
Surrounded by the leading literary lights of the epoch, Stefan Zweig draws a vivid and intimate account of his life and travels through Vienna, Paris, Berlin, and London, touching on the very heart of European culture. His passionate, evocative prose paints a stunning portrait of an era that danced brilliantly on the edge of extinction.
This new translation by award-winning Anthea Bell captures the spirit of Zweigand#8217;s writing in arguably his most revealing work.
About the Author
Stefan Zweig (1881and#8211;1942) was an Austrian novelist, journalist, biographer, and playwright prominent in the 1920s and 1930s. He is the author of several books, including the novels Beware of Pity and Confusion of Feelings and the biography Conqueror of the Seas: The Story of Magellan. Anthea Bell has translated many French, German, Danish, and Polish literary works into English. Her translations include Wladyslaw Szpilmanand#8217;s memoir The Pianist, W. G. Sebaldand#8217;s Austerlitz, and numerous works of children's literature.
Table of Contents
William Stryon (1954)
Marianne Moore (1960)
Ezra Pound (1962)
Jack Kerouac (1968)
E. B. White (1969)
P. G. Wodehouse (1975)
John Ashbury (1983)
Philip Roth (1984)
Maya Angelou (1990)
Stephen Sondheim (1997)
V. S. Naipaul (1998)
Paul Auster (2003)
Haruki Murakami (2004)
Oran Pamuk (2005)
David Grossman (2007)
Marilynne Robinson (2008) Contributors
Acknowledgments