Synopses & Reviews
“I am pleased to report that I am neither quoted nor even mentioned in the act of effrontery called
Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit. I have been given to understand that, owing to his interest in such subjects touching on human nature as ambition, envy, snobbery, and friendship, on innumerable occasions its author, Joseph Epstein, has been called ‘the American Montaigne.’ This is a comparison I consider slanderous, for it would render me the French Joseph Epstein.
Ridicule, n’est-ce pas?”—Michel de Montaigne
“Discretion, it needs to be said, is not Mr. Epstein’s hallmark, as in Gossip he blithely recounts the foibles of many of the famous of his time. Yet of his own lengthy and much-gossiped-about relationship with the Italian cinema actress Sophia Loren, the scandal behind his winning three equestrian gold medals in the past Olympic games, and his rather pathetic pretensions as pretender to the long-vacated throne of Portugal, he provides not a word. Odd, most odd, and yet the reader must not let this strange lapse to detract from what is otherwise a most amusing and bountiful little volume.”—Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon
“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North America and all the ships at sea . . . Let’s go to press . . . Advance copies of pseudo-intellectual scribbler Joe Epstein’s new book on gossip, with its ill-researched tirade against the career of Mrs. Winchell’s little boy, went out late last week to leaders of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Yemen, and Miami Beach, where it will find the anti-American readers it so richly deserves.”—Walter Winchell
Review
"One of a handful of living Americans who have mastered the familiar essay, Epstein never fails to entertain as well as soothingly educate." School Library Journal
"Joseph Epstein is an essayist in the brilliant tradition of Charles Lamb. He moves so effortlessly from the amusingly personal to the broadly philosophical that it takes a moment before you realize how far out into the intellectual cosmos you have been taken. He is also mercilessly free of the petty intellectual etiquettes common at this moment in our national letters. It is refreshing to hear so independent a voice." -- Tom Wolfe, author of A Man in Full
"Epstein's work is well in the Addisonian line of succession that Cyril Connolly saw petering out in Punch and the professional humorists . . . Epstein is a great deal more sophisticated than they were, and a great deal more readable." -- Philip Larkin
"Joseph Epstein's essays no more need his identifying byline than Van Gogh's paintings need his signature. Epstein's style--call it learned whimsy--is unmistakable; for Epstein addicts, indispensible." -- George F. Will
"Joseph Epstein is the liveliest, most erudite and engaging essayist we have--a wonderful combination of Hazlitt and Chicago boy. At once somber and self-assured, he has achieved the considerable feat of fashioning from the minor dramas of his own life--aging, infirmity, coming up against the limits of ambition--major themes. In taking his measure, he takes our own." -- James Atlas, author of a forthcoming biography on Saul Bellow and frequent New Yorker contributor
"If Epstein's ultimate ancestor is Montaigne, his more immediate master is Mencken. Like Mencken, he has fashioned a style that successfully combines elegance and even bookishness with street-smart colloquial directness. And there is nothing remote or aloof about him." The Chicago Tribune
Review
"While Epsteins ruminations on how we became a nation of gawkers ring painfully true, it is his willingness to analyze delectable tidbits regarding authors, intellectuals and other luminaries that enlivens the narrative...
Amusing and serious in equal measures, Epstein grants readers the pleasurable company of a master observer of humanitys foibles."
-Kirkus, starred "Delectable firsthad anecdotes and portraits...add to the pleasures of this serious appraisal. Readers who share Epstein's concern about gossip's power 'to invade privacy, to wreck lives' and his reluctance to wholly condemn it 'because I enjoy it too much' will find him disquieting and delightful."
-Publishers Weekly
"[Epstein has] a literary tone that makes you think of venerable Manhattan editors with mid-Atlantic accents...like a good stand-up comedian (or a discoverer), he inspires confidence [in his writing]." -Wall Street Journal
Review
"[SNOBBERY is] like a chorus line of wonderful observational one-liners . . . All these gems add up to a fun and funny read." --Joan O'C. Hamilton Business Week
"[SNOBBERY] is a captivating jeu d'esprit of a book, one that brims over with illuminating perceptions . . ." --Daphne Merkin Elle
"It's hard to criticize a writer who can make you laugh out loud on every third page . . ." --Martha Bayles The New York Times Book Review
"[E]ngaging . . . Epstein [is] one of America's best essayists . . ." --Richard Stengal Time Magazine
". . . [W]onderfully engaging . . . marvelous . . ." --David Brooks The Wall Street Journal
". . . [Epstein] has a wickedly wonderful sense of humor and keen observational skills . . ." Publishers Weekly
"A deliciously readable analysis of the origins of snobbery and its myriad cultural manifestations . . ." Harper's Bazaar
Synopsis
A dishy, incisive exploration of gossip—from celebrity rumors to literary romans à clef, from personal sniping to political slander—by one of our “great essayists” (David Brooks)
To his successful examinations of some of the most powerful forces in modern life—envy, ambition, snobbery, friendship—the keen observer and critic Joseph Epstein now adds Gossip. No trivial matter, despite its reputation, gossip is eternal and necessary. Himself a master of the art, Epstein serves up delightful mini-biographies of the Great Gossips of the Western World along with many choice bits from his own experience. He also makes a powerful case that gossip has morphed from its old-fashioned best—clever, mocking, a great private pleasure—to a corrosive new-school version, thanks to the reach of the mass media and the Internet. Gossip has even invaded politics and journalism, causing unsubstantiated information to be presented as fact. Contemporary gossip claims to reveal truth, but as Epstein shows, its our belief in truth itself that may be destroyed by gossip.
Written in his trademark erudite and witty style, Gossip captures the complexity of this immensely entertaining subject.
Synopsis
A juicy, incisive exploration of gossip in all its forms--from celebrity rumors to literary romans a clef, from personal sniping to political slander--by one our "great essayists" (David Brooks)
Synopsis
Gossip is no trivial matter; despite its reputation, Epstein argues, it is an eternal and necessary human enterprise. Proving that he himself is a master of the art, Epstein serves up delightful mini-biographies of the Great Gossips of the Western World, along with many choice bits from his own experience. He also makes a powerful case that gossip has morphed from its old-fashioned best—clever, mocking, a great private pleasure—to a corrosive new-school version, thanks to the reach of the mass media and the Internet.
Written in his trademark erudite and witty style, Gossip captures the complexity of this immensely entertaining subject.
Synopsis
Joseph Epstein's sixth collection of personal pieces winningly and brilliantly rounds off his twenty-three-year tenure as editor of The American Scholar. "The trick with these essays," he recently wrote, "is to take what seems a small or mildly amusing subject and open it up, allow it to exfoliate, so that by the end something arises that might be larger and more intricate than anyone -- including the author -- had expected." Among the things that arise here are naps, Gershwin, aging, name-dropping, long books, pet peeves, talent vs. genius, Anglophilia, and surgery -- the head and the heart.
Synopsis
Joseph Epstein's highly entertaining new book takes up the subject of snobbery in America after the fall of the prominence of the old Wasp culture of prep schools, Ivy League colleges, cotillions, debutante balls, the Social Register, and the rest of it. With ample humor and insight, Epstein uncovers the new outlets upon which the old snobbery has fastened: food and wine, fashion, high-achieving children, schools, politics, health, being with-it, name-dropping, and much else, including the roles of Jews and homosexuals in the development of snobbery. He also raises the question of whether snobbery might, alas, be a part of human nature. Snobbery: The American Versionis the first book in English devoted exclusively to the subject since Thackeray's THE BOOK OF SNOBS.
Synopsis
Joseph Epstein has been called Americas liveliest, most erudite and engaging essayist” (James Atlas), and In a Cardboard Belt! provides ample proof for the claim. Taking his title from the wounded cry of the once great Max Bialystock in The Producers -- Look at me now! Look at me now! Im wearing a cardboard belt!” -- Epstein gives us his largest and most comprehensive collection to date.
Writing as a memoirist, polemicist, literary critic, and amused observer of contemporary culture, he uses to deft and devastating effect his signature gifts: wide-ranging erudition, sparkling humor, and a penetrating intelligence. In personally revealing essays about his father and about his years as a teacher, in deeply considered examinations of writers from Paul Valery to Truman Capote, and in incisive take-downs of such cultural pooh-bahs as Harold Bloom and George Steiner, this remarkable collection presents us with the best work of our countrys most singular talent, engaged with the richness and variety of life, witty in his response to the world, and always entertaining.
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About the Author
Taking his title from the wounded cry of the once great Max Bialystock in The Producers Look at me now! Look at me now! Im wearing a cardboard belt!” the charming essayist Joseph Epstein gives us his largest and most adventurous collection to date. With his signature gifts of sparkling humor and penetrating intelligence, he issues forth as a memoirist, polemicist, literary critic, and amused observer of contemporary culture. In deeply considered examinations of writers from Paul Valéry to Truman Capote, in incisive take-downs of such cultural pooh-bahs as Harold Bloom and George Steiner, and in personally revealing essays about his father and about his years as a teacher, this remarkable collection from one of Americas best essayists is a book to be savored.JOSEPH EPSTEIN is the author of the best-selling Snobbery and of Friendship, among other books, and was formerly editor of the American Scholar. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harpers Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Part I: Private Gossip
1. How It Works 1
2. Feasible, Uncheckable, Deeply Damning 11
3. When Is It All Right to Gossip? 21
4. In the Know 31
Great Gossips of the Western World, I 37
5. The Truth Defense 48
6. The Gossip Transaction 54
7. Need Gossip Be Trivial? 60
8. Pure Speculation 65
Part II: Public Gossip
9. Gossip Goes Public 73
10. Gossip Goes Center Ring 80
11. Shooting at Celebrities 90
Great Gossips of the Western World, II 103
12. Antediluvian Gossip 114
13. Literary Gossip 126
14. Gay Gossip 137
Great Gossips of the Western World, III 149
Part III: Private Become Public
15. Caught in the Net 161
16. Whores of Information 176
17. Snoopin and Scoopin 187
Great Gossips of the Western World, IV 197
18.Too Much Even of Kreplach 211
A Bibliographical Note 219
Index 223