Waiting for the BarbariansWaiting for the Barbarians
Essays on the Classics and Pop Culture
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Book, 2012
Current format, Book, 2012, , Available.Book, 2012
Current format, Book, 2012, , Available. Offered in 0 more formatsFINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
AND THE PEN ART OF THE ESSAY AWARD
Over the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohn's reviews fornbsp; The New York Review of Books ,nbsp; The New Yorker , andnbsp; The New York Times Book Review nbsp;have earned him a reputation as "one of the greatest critics of our time" ( Poets Writers ). Innbsp; Waiting for the Barbarians , he brings together twenty-four of his recent essays--each one glinting with "verve and sparkle," "acumen and passion"--on a wide range of subjects, fromnbsp; Avatar nbsp;to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with thenbsp; Titanic nbsp;to Susan Sontag'snbsp; Journals . Trained as a classicist, author of two internationally best-selling memoirs, Mendelsohn moves easily from penetrating considerations of the ways in which the classics continue to make themselves felt in contemporary life and letters (Greek myth in thenbsp; Spider-Man nbsp;musical, Anne Carson's translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectacles--none more explosively controversial than his dissection ofnbsp; Mad Men .
Also gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littell's Holocaust blockbusternbsp; The Kindly Ones nbsp;to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, "Private Lives," prefaced by Mendelsohn's New Yorker nbsp;essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, Noël Coward, and Jonathan Franzen.nbsp; Waiting for the Barbarians nbsp;once again demonstrates that Mendelsohn's "sweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth."
AND THE PEN ART OF THE ESSAY AWARD
Over the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohn's reviews fornbsp; The New York Review of Books ,nbsp; The New Yorker , andnbsp; The New York Times Book Review nbsp;have earned him a reputation as "one of the greatest critics of our time" ( Poets Writers ). Innbsp; Waiting for the Barbarians , he brings together twenty-four of his recent essays--each one glinting with "verve and sparkle," "acumen and passion"--on a wide range of subjects, fromnbsp; Avatar nbsp;to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with thenbsp; Titanic nbsp;to Susan Sontag'snbsp; Journals . Trained as a classicist, author of two internationally best-selling memoirs, Mendelsohn moves easily from penetrating considerations of the ways in which the classics continue to make themselves felt in contemporary life and letters (Greek myth in thenbsp; Spider-Man nbsp;musical, Anne Carson's translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectacles--none more explosively controversial than his dissection ofnbsp; Mad Men .
Also gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littell's Holocaust blockbusternbsp; The Kindly Ones nbsp;to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, "Private Lives," prefaced by Mendelsohn's New Yorker nbsp;essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, Noël Coward, and Jonathan Franzen.nbsp; Waiting for the Barbarians nbsp;once again demonstrates that Mendelsohn's "sweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth."
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- New York : New York Review Books, c2012.
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