Synopses & Reviews
Classics for pleasure? To some readers this may seem an oxymoron. Aren't classics supposed to be difficult, esoteric, and probably a little boring? . . . I sympathize with this common view, even if it is largely wrong. Classics are classics not because they are educational, but because people have found them worth reading, generation after generation, century after century. More than anything else, great books speak to us of our own all-too-real feelings, confusions and daydreamsThis is not, your father'sor your mother's--list of classics. In these delightful essays, Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Dirda introduces nearly ninety of the world's most entertaining books. Writing with affection as well as authority, Dirda covers masterpieces of fantasy and science fiction, horror and adventure, as well as of biography and history, poetry and children's literature. Organized thematically, these are the works that have shaped our imaginations and inspired our dreams and adventures. Here are Sappho's yearnings and the Arthurian romances, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the ghost stories of M. R. James, the classic fairy tales and the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer.
Dirda approaches each of his chosen titles as a passionate reader rather than as a critic or scholar. He points us to new authors, less familiar classics, and genre titles often excluded from the canon. Whether writing about Petronius or S. J. Perelman, H. P. Lovecraft or the Icelandic sagas, Michael Dirda makes literature come alive. Full of surprises and wit, Classics for Pleasure is a perfect companion for any reading group or lover of books.
Review
PRAISE FOR MICHAEL DIRDA
"For some time now, the best book critic in America has been Michael Dirda."--The New York Observer
Review
PRAISE FOR CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE"[Dirda's] impeccable standards, unbridled enthusiasm and intelligent joy at recounting elements of character, scene, author and society will attract anyone with a genuine interest in literate discoveries."San Francisco Chronicle
"Dirda is a master of the light touch--his tone is invariably cordial and measured . . . His expansiveness, his love of genre fiction like detective novels, gives his writing an approachability lacking in so much literary criticism."--The Boston Globe
Synopsis
This is not your fathers list of classics. In these delightful essays, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda introduces nearly ninety of the worlds most entertaining books. Writing with affection as well as authority, Dirda covers masterpieces of fantasy and science fiction, horror and adventure, as well as epics, history, essay, and childrens literature. Organized thematically, these are works that have shaped our imaginations. Loves Mysteries moves from Sappho and Arthurian romance to Soren Kierkegaard and Georgette Heyer. In other categories Dirda discusses not only Dracula and Sherlock Holmes but also the Tao Te Ching and Icelandic sagas, Frederick Douglass and Fowlers Modern English Usage. Whether writing about Petronius or Perelman, Dirda makes literature come alive. Classics for Pleasure is a perfect companion for any reading group or lover of books.
Synopsis
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE "It is hard to think of another writer who loves books so passionately, who has such broad tastes and impeccably high standardsand who writes about literature with such intelligence, generosity, and enthusiasm. Michael Dirda is a cultural treasure." Francine Prose "Michael Dirda's honest and careful perceptions have been crafted for people who read. He has the wonderful ability to make us feel as intelligent as he is."Guy Davenport
"This book is full of short, sharp loving Shocks of Appreciation, cunningly arranged in sequences we would have never dreamed up--I doubt George Meredith, C P Cavafy, Georgette Heyer and Anna Akhmatova have ever been juxtaposed before--but which add up to a vision far greater than the sum of its parts.."--John Clute
"Michael Dirda is the best-read person in America. But he doesnt rub it in."--Michael Kinsley, Time columnist and former editor of Slate
About the Author
MICHAEL DIRDA received the Pulitzer Prize for his literary criticism in the Washington Post Book World. He is the author of the memoir An Open Book, as well as several collections of essays, most recently Bound to Please (a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award) and Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Playful Imaginations
Lucian 5
Denis Diderot 8
Thomas Love Peacock 11
Max Beerbohm 14
Jaroslav Ha?sek 18
Ivy Compton-Burnett 22
S. J. Perelman 25
Italo Calvino 29
Edward Gorey 32
Heroes of Their Time
Beowulf 38
Abolqasem Ferdowsi 41
The Icelandic Sagas 44
Christopher Marlowe 48
Émile Zola 52
Ernst Jünger 55
James Agee 60
Loves Mysteries
Sappho 65
Arthurian Romances 67
Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette 71
Sören Kierkegaard 73
George Meredith 76
C. P. Cavafy 81
Georgette Heyer 84
Anna Akhmatova 88
Daphne du Maurier 92
Words from the Wise
Lao-tse 96
Heraclitus 98
Cicero 100
Erasmus 102
The English Religious Tradition 106
Benedict de Spinoza 111
Samuel Johnson 116
Everyday Magic
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 122
The Classic Fairy Tales 125
E. T. A. Hoffmann 128
Prosper Mérimée 131
Frances Hodgson Burnett 134
E. Nesbit/John Mase?eld 136
Walter de la Mare 141
Lives of Consequence
Plutarch 148
Girolamo Cardano 151
John Aubrey 153
Alexander Pope 156
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 159
Frederick Douglass 164
Jacob Burckhardt 168
Henry James 170
W. H. Auden 174
The Dark Side
John Webster 182
Mary Shelley 185
James Hogg 188
Sheridan Le Fanu 192
Bram Stoker 196
M. R. James 199
William Roughead 203
H. P. Lovecraft 206
Travelers Tales
Thomas More 212
Daniel Defoe 214
Xavier de Maistre 217
Jules Verne 220
J. K. Huysmans 224
Isak Dinesen 226
Robert Byron 230
The Way We Live Now
Petronius 234
Elizabeth Gaskell 237
Ivan Goncharov 241
José Maria Eça de Queiros 244
Anton Chekhov 248
Jean Toomer 251
Willa Cather 254
Louis-Ferdinand Céline 257
Zora Neale Hurston 261
Eudora Welty 264
Realms of Adventure
H. Rider Haggard 270
Arthur Conan Doyle 274
Rudyard Kipling 277
H. G. Wells 280
G. K. Chesterton 283
Agatha Christie 287
Dashiell Hammett 290
Encyclopedic Visions
Ovid 295
Robert Burton 297
Edward Gibbon 301
J. G. Frazer 304
H. W. Fowler 307
Ezra Pound 311
André Malraux 314
Philip K. Dick 317
Envoi 321
Appendix: A Chronological Index of the Authors 322
Acknowledgments 324
Index 325