Product Description

An anthology of twentieth-century essays considers such wide-ranging topics as racial conflict, sky diving, and table athletics and includes the works of Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, E. B. White, Truman Capote, and Flannery O'Connor, among others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66858 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393036541
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
This amazing collection consists of talented writers approaching highly personal subjects. Dorothy Parker is not terribly pleased about turning 40. A. J. Liebling holds forth on having a good appetite. Zora Neale Hurston meditates on the color of her skin and what that means. Flannery O'Connor writes with introspection about raising peacocks on her farm. John Gregory Dunne discusses his feelings about adopting a daughter with his wife, Joan Didion. More than 50 selections can be found in The Norton Book of Personal Essays, and the roster of writers couldn't be more impressive.

From Library Journal
The appeal of personal essays stems in part from their directness, their "shameless subjectivity." As the editor of the American Scholar and the author of five collections of essays, Epstein is eminently qualified to select and introduce 53 personal essays written in English by well-known authors during the past century. They were chosen because he "found them interesting, touching, pleasing, amusing, delightful?above all, entertaining." The result is a potpourri of selections that vary widely in subject and style. Topics range from music, racism, and traveling to fathers, children, and childhood. Among the selections are Dorothy Parker's witty diatribe on reaching middle age and historian Barbara Tuchman's reflections about the curious letters she receives from her readers. While not all essays in this anthology will appeal to everyone, readers have a nice variety to choose from. Recommended for general literature collections.?Ilse Heidmann, San Marcos, Tex.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Essay anthologies have become increasingly popular, as evident by the success, for instance, of the annual Best American Essay series, and now Epstein adds to the shelf a felicitous collection of works by more than 50 outstanding twentieth-century American and British writers. A fine essayist in his own right and author of several collections, including With My Trousers Rolled (1995), Epstein ponders the status of the essay in his introduction, surmising that it is the ideal form for "ages of transition and uncertain values," clearly an apt description for the present. Epstein also opines that a number of writers revered for their novels are actually better essayists, such as George Orwell, James Baldwin, and Joan Didion. Without a doubt, the essay is the ideal vehicle for all the writers represented here, including the aforementioned as well as M. F. K. Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston, Barbara Tuchman, Truman Capote, Lewis Thomas, and Cynthia Ozick. Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

World-class reading
If this weren't so heavy, I would carry it everywhere. Jam-packed with brilliant, insightful writing. I defy anyone to read Mark Twain's ``Italian Without a Master'' (the first essay in this compilation) and NOT laugh out loud. David Sedaris's essays, much as I love them, are a pale imitation of this Twain masterpiece.

A Great collection of "Personal Essays"
Joseph Epstein is an intersting author who has taken the art of the Personal Essay to a higher Realm. In this book, he has chosen a variety of authors who have similarly treated this art form, and presents a delightful collection of the same. An enjoyable read for people who enjoy good literary style. Included authors include Twain, Beerbohm, Woolf, Parker, Orwell, Fitzgerald, Connolly, Greene, Capote, Baldwin, Naipaul, Tan, etc.. Try it out!

HGHLY RECOMMENDED SERVICE.


The book I purchased was timely delivered. The quality of the book was as described. Excellent condition. The price was great!