| Description |
xxiv, 261 pages ; 23 cm |
| Contents |
Introduction : "A history and poetics of the essay" / Jeff Porter -- Introduction to David Foster Wallace -- Reading "A supposedly fun thing I'll never do again" / Jeff Porter -- Introduction to Anne Carson -- Reading "On trout" / Eula Biss -- Introduction to Jamaica Kincaid -- Reading 'A small place' / Donald Morrill -- Introduction to Scott Russell Sanders -- Reading "Under the influence" / James McKean -- Introduction to Joy Williams -- Reading "The case against babies" / Sara Levine -- Introduction to Joan Didion -- Reading "Georgia O'Keeffe" / Patricia Foster -- Introduction to John McPhee -- Reading 'Encounters with the Archdruid' / Adam Hochschild -- Introduction to Cynthia Ozick -- Reading "A drugstore in winter" / Sven Birkerts -- Introduction to James Baldwin -- Reading "Notes of a native son" / Honor Moore -- Introduction to Seymour Krim -- Reading "For my brothers and sisters in the failure business" / Vivian Gornick -- Introduciton to Ralph Ellison -- Reading "The little man in Chehaw Station" / Gayle Pemberton -- Introduction to George Orwell -- Reading "A hanging" / Carl H. Klaus -- Introduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Reading "The crack-up" / Patricia Hampl -- Introduction to Virginia Woolf -- Reading "Street haunting" / Marilyn Abildskov -- Introduction to Mark Twain -- Reading "To the person sitting in darkness" / Robin Hemley -- Introduction to William Hazlitt -- Reading "On the pleasure of hating" / Phillip Lopate -- Introduction to Charles Lamb -- Reading "New Year's Eve" / David Lazar -- Introduction to Jonathan Swift -- Reading "A modest proposal" / Xu Xi -- Introduction to Michel de Montaigne -- Reading "On some verses of Virgil" / David Hamilton -- Key terms for the essay |
| Summary |
"This is a book on how to read the essay, one that demonstrates how reading is inextricably tied to the art of writing. It aims to treat the essay with the close attention that has been given to other literary genres, and in doing so it suggests the beauty and depth of the form as a whole. At once personal appreciations and acute critical assessments, the pieces collected here broaden our perspective on the essay as a major literary art, tracing its history from William Hazlitt to Joan Didion." -- Publisher's website |
| Analysis |
University of Ballarat |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references |
| Subject |
College readers.
|
|
English language -- Rhetoric.
|
|
Essays.
|
| Author |
Foster, Patricia, 1948- editor of compilation
|
|
Porter, Jeffrey Lyn, 1951- editor of compilation
|
| ISBN |
1554810205 |
|
9781554810208 |
|
