In this highly impressive volume, first published in 1932, T.S. Eliot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot and http://www.eliotsociety.org.uk/) gathered his choice of the miscellaneous reviews and literary essays he had written since 1917 when he became assistant editor of The Egoist. In his preface to the third edition in 1951 he wrote: ‘For myself this book is a kind of historical record of […]
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John Berger’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Berger) Ways of Seeing (1972) is one of the most stimulating and influential books on art in any language. It was based on the BBC television series about which the Sunday Times critic commented: ‘This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . .
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The famous child psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Bettelheim), explains how fairy tales educate, support, and liberate the emotions of children. Wicked stepmothers and beautiful princesses … magic forests and enchanted towers … little pigs and big bad wolves … Fairy tales have been an integral part of childhood for hundreds of years. It’s in this book
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What Charles Rosen’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rosen) celebrated book The Classical Style (1971) did for music of the Classical period, this volume of 1995 brilliantly does for the Romantic era. An exhilarating exploration of the musical language, forms, and styles of the Romantic period, it captures the spirit that enlivened a generation of composers and musicians, and in doing so
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Now revised, The Story of English (1986) by Robert McCrum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McCrum) was the first book to tell the whole story of the English language for a popular audience. It presents a stimulating and comprehensive record of spoken and written English, from its Anglo-Saxon origins some two thousand years ago to the present day, when English is
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The Liberal Imagination (1950) by Lionel Trilling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Trilling and http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079615/index.html) is one of the most admired and influential works of criticism of the last century, a work that is not only a masterpiece of literary criticism but an important statement about politics and society. Published at one of the chillier moments of the Cold War, Trilling’s essays
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Henry Louis (‘H.L.’) Mencken (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mencken) was inspired by ‘the argot of the coloured waiters’ in Washington, as well as one of his favourite authors, Mark Twain, and his experiences on the streets of Baltimore. In 1902, he remarked on the ‘queer words which go into the making of ‘United States’. The American Language (1919) was preceded by several columns
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The Story of Art, by Ernst Gombrich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Gombrich), is a survey of the history of art from ancient times to the modern era. First published in 1950, the book is widely regarded both as a seminal work of criticism, and as one of the most accessible introductions to the visual arts. It was originally intended
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Echoing Edward Said’s belief that ‘Western humanism is not enough, we need a universal humanism’, the renowned critic Clive James (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_James and http://www.clivejames.com/) presents here his life’s work. Containing over one hundred original essays, organized by quotations from A to Z, Cultural Amnesia (2007) illuminates, rescues, or occasionally destroys the careers of many of the greatest thinkers,
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