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
"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
Review
"Brisk and delightful . . . Engaging . . . 'Friendship' is spangled with winning turns of phrase." --John Freeman The Wall Street Journal
"As entertaining and illuminating as a leisurely lunch with a loquacious, literate friend." Kirkus Reviews
"Epstein lucidly. . .applies wisdom to his own life experience, producing a meditative memoir that is refined and modest in tone." Publishers Weekly
As always, [Epstein] works wonders with words . . . for more than two decades, he has been a national treasure. . . . Enthusiastically recommended." Library Journal Starred
"A fine companion for those who find listening to wry, erudite men holding forth on history and society a pleasure." --Elissa Schappell Elle
"Smart, delightfully literate and sophisticated." --Tim Rutten The Los Angeles Times
"Epstein is an adroit pulse-taker of changing mores." --Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett The Seattle Times
"Engaging, witty and heady. Epstein uses examples from Aristotle to Seinfeld to get at the heart of human relationships." --Gail Rosenblum Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Rich pickings . . . A thoughtful consideration of the pleasures and obligations of friendship . . . honest, unsparing and brimful of illuminating literary anecdotes." --William Grimes The New York Times
"A fascinating look at something that will remain important as long as we remain human." --Jeffrey M. Landaw The Baltimore Sun
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 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
A dishy, incisive exploration of gossip — from celebrity rumors to literary
romans à clef, personal sniping to political slander — by one 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, he argues, 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. Gossip has invaded and changed for the worse 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 that gossip today threatens to undermine and destroy.
Written in his trademark erudite and witty style, Gossip captures the complexity of this immensely entertaining subject.
The e-book includes a sample chapter from Snobbery by Joseph Epstein.
Synopsis
Is it possible to have too many friends? Is your spouse supposed to be your best friend? How far should you go to help a friend in need? And how do you end a friendship that has run its course?
In a wickedly entertaining anatomy of friendship in its contemporary guises, Joseph Epstein uncovers the rich and surprising truths about our favored companions. Friendship illuminates those complex, wonderful relationships without which we'd all be lost.
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
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.
About the Author
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