American Fictions
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.18 (922 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0375754822 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-12-18 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
She often intertwines elegant intellectual arguments with details of her subjects' lives, as with Sylvia Plath ("both heroine and author; when the curtain goes down, it is her own dead body there on the stage, sacrificed to her plot"). The ultimate achievement of this energetic book is that Hardwick's smart, eloquent discussions of important works of American fiction bear little resemblance to the normally arid field of literary criticism. Between the bookends, Hardwick casts her deft eye on, among other
"Wonderful and difficult" according to Stephen Armstrong. This book contains 27 of Hardwick's literary critical essays--and they are gems. The essays are arranged in themes (e.g., "Old New York," "Victims and Victors") around particular authors (e.g., Edith Wharton, Henry James, the Prairie poets, and so forth). Her essays concern novelists and short-story writers, but she has several essays on those who come from poetry, drama, and non-fiction prose. Her introductory essay, "Locations," is worth the price of the book alone.Elizabeth Hardwick writes so fluently that you find her drawing imaginative comparisons, remarkable analogies, and passionate connections.. A Customer said Review. How seldom one finds readable, perceptive criticism that does what it's supposed to: enhance one's pleasure and understanding of the original work. The New Yorker comparison to Kael is apt; Hardwick's criticism is itself high art. These are collections of previous essays. The very best are those on "Bartleby", "Washington Square" and "House of Mirth". Excellent!. Excellent reviewer Boche Excellent critic of American writing. Weakness is that it's often hastily composed reviews rather than thoughtful essays.
"Just as Edwin Denby, Clement Greenburg, and Pauline Kael transformed the nature of criticism in the fields of dance, art, and film, respectively, Hardwick has redefined the possibilities of the literary essay."--The New YorkerA brilliant tour of a century American writers, from the novels of Melville, Wharton and James to the fictions of Margaret Fuller, Sylvia Plath and Norman Mailer. Twenty-five years ago, Elizabeth Hardwick's now classic essay "Seduction and Betrayal" helped pioneer the study of women in fiction, both as writers and as characters. American Fictions gathers fro the first time Hardwick's portraits of America's greatest writers. Many of these pieces double as individual reminiscences about close friends, including Mary McCarthy, Katherine Anne Porter and Edmund Wilson. Hardwick has achieved a permanent place in American letters for her sharp and elegant style. Her essays are themselves a work of literature.