Classics For Pleasure

By: Michael Dirda

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Paperback | 1 November 2008

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352 Pages

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20.32 x 13.34 x 2.24

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This is not your father'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 epics, history, essay, and children's literature. Organized thematically, these are works that have shaped our imaginations. "Love's Mysteries" moves from Sappho and Arthurian romance to Sören 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 Fowler's 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.

Industry Reviews

PRAISE FOR MICHAEL DIRDA

"For some time now, the best book critic in America has been Michael Dirda."--The New York Observer --

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Introduction •	p. 1
Playful Imaginations Lucian •	p. 5
Denis Diderot •	p. 8
Thomas Love Peacock •	p. 11
Max Beerbohm •	p. 14
Jaroslav Ha?sek •	p. 18
Ivy Compton-Burnett •	p. 22
S. J. Perelman •	p. 25
Italo Calvino •	p. 29
Edward Gorey •	p. 32
Heroes of Their Time Beowulf•	p. 38
Abolqasem Ferdowsi •	p. 41
The Icelandic Sagas •	p. 44
Christopher Marlowe •	p. 48
Émile Zola •	p. 52
Ernst Jünger •	p. 55
James Agee •	p. 60
Love’s Mysteries Sappho •	p. 65
Arthurian Romances •	p. 67
Marie-Madeleine de La Fayette •	p. 71
Sören Kierkegaard •	p. 73
George Meredith •	p. 76
C. P. Cavafy •	p. 81
Georgette Heyer •	p. 84
Anna Akhmatova •	p. 88
Daphne du Maurier •	p. 92
Words from the Wise Lao-tse •	p. 96
Heraclitus •	p. 98
Cicero •	p. 100
Erasmus •	p. 102
The English Religious Tradition •	p. 106
Benedict de Spinoza •	p. 111
Samuel Johnson •	p. 116
Everyday Magic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight•	p. 122
The Classic Fairy Tales •	p. 125
E. T. A. Hoffmann •	p. 128
Prosper Mérimée •	p. 131
Frances Hodgson Burnett •	p. 134
E. Nesbit/John Mase?eld •	p. 136
Walter de la Mare •	p. 141
Lives of Consequence Plutarch •	p. 148
Girolamo Cardano •	p. 151
John Aubrey •	p. 153
Alexander Pope •	p. 156
Jean-Jacques Rousseau •	p. 159
Frederick Douglass •	p. 164
Jacob Burckhardt •	p. 168
Henry James •	p. 170
W. H. Auden •	p. 174
The Dark Side John Webster •	p. 182
Mary Shelley •	p. 185
James Hogg •	p. 188
Sheridan Le Fanu •	p. 192
Bram Stoker •	p. 196
M. R. James •	p. 199
William Roughead •	p. 203
H. P. Lovecraft •	p. 206
Traveler’s Tales Thomas More •	p. 212
Daniel Defoe •	p. 214
Xavier de Maistre •	p. 217
Jules Verne •	p. 220
J. K. Huysmans •	p. 224
Isak Dinesen •	p. 226
Robert Byron •	p. 230
The Way We Live Now Petronius •	p. 234
Elizabeth Gaskell •	p. 237
Ivan Goncharov •	p. 241
José Maria Eça de Queiros •	p. 244
Anton Chekhov •	p. 248
Jean Toomer •	p. 251
Willa Cather •	p. 254
Louis-Ferdinand Céline •	p. 257
Zora Neale Hurston •	p. 261
Eudora Welty •	p. 264
Realms of Adventure H. Rider Haggard •	p. 270
Arthur Conan Doyle •	p. 274
Rudyard Kipling •	p. 277
H. G. Wells •	p. 280
G. K. Chesterton •	p. 283
Agatha Christie •	p. 287
Dashiell Hammett •	p. 290
Encyclopedic Visions Ovid •	p. 295
Robert Burton •	p. 297
Edward Gibbon •	p. 301
J. G. Frazer •	p. 304
H. W. Fowler •	p. 307
Ezra Pound •	p. 311
André Malr
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Classics For Pleasure

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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The Cursed Road

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