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Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature
Our finest essayists discuss six centuries of literary genius.
"Genius is one of those words upon which the world has agreed to form no clear consensus," Joseph Epstein tells us in his introduction. How then shall we define "literary genius"? In this collection, twenty-five contemporary authors endeavor to answer that question by considering twenty-five classic writers and their enduring works.
We learn that, more important than mere originality or creativity, it is the ability to make us experience the world in new ways that sets these writers apart. "My task," Joseph Conrad wrote, "is by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel—it is above all to make you see. That—and no more, and it is everything."
Wood-engraved portraits and illustrations by renowned artist Barry Moser accompany each essay.
Contents:
1. Tom Shippey on Geoffrey Chaucer
2. Lois Potter on William Shakespeare
3. Reynolds Price on John Milton
4. Anthony Hecht on Alexander Pope
5. David Bromwich on Samuel Johnson
6. David Womersley on Edward Gibbon
7. Dan Jacobson on William Wordsworth
8. Hilary Mantel on Jane Austen
9. Frederick Raphael on William Hazlitt
10. Evan Boland on John Keats
11. Daniel Mark Epstein on Nathaniel Hawthorne
12. A. N. Wilson on Charles Dickens
13. Justin Kaplan on Walt Whitman
14. William Pritchard on Herman Melville
15. Paula Marantz Cohen on George Eliot
16. Bruce Floyd on Emily Dickinson
17. David Carkeet on Mark Twain
18. Joseph Epstein on Henry James
19. Elizabeth Lowry on Joseph Conrad
20. Stephen Cox on Willa Cather
21. Robert Pack on Robert Frost
22. Joseph Blotner on William Faulkner
23. John Gross on James Joyce
24. John Simon on T.S. Eliot
25. James L. W. West III on Ernest Hemingway
Joseph Epstein, from his introduction: "Literary genius comes in many varieties. Some literary geniuses seem natural (Charles Dickens, Mark Twain), others cultivated (George Eliot, Henry James). Some are prolific (Wordsworth, Whitman), some are more carefully concentrated (Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot). Some literary geniuses are stimulated by the difficult (Alexander Pope, John Milton). Some require absolute originality — entailing the need to invent their own style — to convey their vision (James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway). Some have perfected a form (Pope, the heroic couplet), some have tried to kill off a genre (Joyce, the novel). Not some but all literary geniuses can be read again and again, down through the generations. As Hilary Mantel, in her essay on Jane Austen, writes: 'Surely this is the definition of genius in a writer: the capacity to make a text that can give and give, a text that is never fully read, a text that goes on multiplying meanings.' Timelessness this is called, and it is another of the hallmarks of literary genius."
Joseph Epstein is the author of nineteen books, most recently In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage. For more than twenty years he was editor of The American Scholar. A contributor to The New Yorker, Commentary, The Atlantic, the Times Literary Supplement, and other magazines, he also taught for many years in the English Department at Northwestern University.
Barry Moser is an illustrator, author, and designer whose work appears in museums and libraries around the world. He has published nearly three hundred titles, including Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which won the American Book Award in 1983. In 1991 he won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for his collaboration with Cynthia Rylant, Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds. A member of the National Academy of Design, he has served on the faculty of Rhode Island School of Design and is currently on the faculty of Smith College.
"Genius is one of those words upon which the world has agreed to form no clear consensus," Joseph Epstein tells us in his introduction. How then shall we define "literary genius"? In this collection, twenty-five contemporary authors endeavor to answer that question by considering twenty-five classic writers and their enduring works.
We learn that, more important than mere originality or creativity, it is the ability to make us experience the world in new ways that sets these writers apart. "My task," Joseph Conrad wrote, "is by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel—it is above all to make you see. That—and no more, and it is everything."
Wood-engraved portraits and illustrations by renowned artist Barry Moser accompany each essay.
Contents:
1. Tom Shippey on Geoffrey Chaucer
2. Lois Potter on William Shakespeare
3. Reynolds Price on John Milton
4. Anthony Hecht on Alexander Pope
5. David Bromwich on Samuel Johnson
6. David Womersley on Edward Gibbon
7. Dan Jacobson on William Wordsworth
8. Hilary Mantel on Jane Austen
9. Frederick Raphael on William Hazlitt
10. Evan Boland on John Keats
11. Daniel Mark Epstein on Nathaniel Hawthorne
12. A. N. Wilson on Charles Dickens
13. Justin Kaplan on Walt Whitman
14. William Pritchard on Herman Melville
15. Paula Marantz Cohen on George Eliot
16. Bruce Floyd on Emily Dickinson
17. David Carkeet on Mark Twain
18. Joseph Epstein on Henry James
19. Elizabeth Lowry on Joseph Conrad
20. Stephen Cox on Willa Cather
21. Robert Pack on Robert Frost
22. Joseph Blotner on William Faulkner
23. John Gross on James Joyce
24. John Simon on T.S. Eliot
25. James L. W. West III on Ernest Hemingway
Joseph Epstein, from his introduction: "Literary genius comes in many varieties. Some literary geniuses seem natural (Charles Dickens, Mark Twain), others cultivated (George Eliot, Henry James). Some are prolific (Wordsworth, Whitman), some are more carefully concentrated (Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot). Some literary geniuses are stimulated by the difficult (Alexander Pope, John Milton). Some require absolute originality — entailing the need to invent their own style — to convey their vision (James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway). Some have perfected a form (Pope, the heroic couplet), some have tried to kill off a genre (Joyce, the novel). Not some but all literary geniuses can be read again and again, down through the generations. As Hilary Mantel, in her essay on Jane Austen, writes: 'Surely this is the definition of genius in a writer: the capacity to make a text that can give and give, a text that is never fully read, a text that goes on multiplying meanings.' Timelessness this is called, and it is another of the hallmarks of literary genius."
Joseph Epstein is the author of nineteen books, most recently In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage. For more than twenty years he was editor of The American Scholar. A contributor to The New Yorker, Commentary, The Atlantic, the Times Literary Supplement, and other magazines, he also taught for many years in the English Department at Northwestern University.
Barry Moser is an illustrator, author, and designer whose work appears in museums and libraries around the world. He has published nearly three hundred titles, including Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which won the American Book Award in 1983. In 1991 he won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for his collaboration with Cynthia Rylant, Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds. A member of the National Academy of Design, he has served on the faculty of Rhode Island School of Design and is currently on the faculty of Smith College.
- GenresBooks About Books
246 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2007
64 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Epstein
105 books114 followersJoseph Epstein is the author of, among other books, Snobbery, Friendship, and Fabulous Small Jews. He has been editor of American Scholar and has written for the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Commentary, Town and Country, and other magazines.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 1, 2016
This seemed like a good choice for an “early in the new year” read, given that I have quite a few classics in the line-up for this year. And I was right. This is a collection of short essays – about six pages each, plus gorgeous full page woodcut illustration, plus a couple pages of representative excerpts from various works mentioned – on twenty-five important English and American authors. Two of them, Edward Gibbon and James Joyce, are authors I don't think I've read (and they aren't in my plans for this year. Yet.), but the others I am at least somewhat familiar with. The thing I really like about this is that each essay is written by a different critic/professor/writer who is focused on what makes his/her subject a “literary genius.” Because each piece does focus on what that essayist feels to be his/her author's particular strengths, even familiar works are generally addressed in a way that may be fresh for many readers. All the pieces seemed to me to be well done, and there was a variety in style which kept things from getting monotonous. The only drawback for me is that now my year's list is longer by several books!
May 5, 2008
A great read to learn what you missed out reading in school. I personally did not pay a great deal of attention once I reached much passed Dickens (as it is chronologically arranged) as I do not enjoy the authors listed past that point. The format of each section is essays by various people, no two the same, one on each of the respected author. For the older British authors it was especially dangerous because it spurned a trip back to the library for a number of books the essays inspired me to read! The essays end especially well, as they mostly give an overview of the authors life and progress, but they end with a view into how the author is viewed by modern readers. I particularly loved Paula Marantz Cohen's observation that Silus Marner is awful book to deem required reading for High School students as it provides a complete turn off to the rest of George Elliot's works, as well as stating that her novels are best left to the adult audience. A good 'check-list' for the bibliophile, wonderful biographical reference, and general insight into a small pool of some of the greatest minds to put pen to paper in the English language (although....Joseph Conrad- as I had learned from this book, spoke English as his *third* language! After Polish and French.)
October 10, 2022
Sixty percent disappointing. I bought this book for two reasons: one, I didn’t read the description carefully enough so I thought the essays on 25 classic writers were all by Mr. Epstein. This is not correct — only one essay and the introduction are written by him. The other 24 essays are written by either academics, authors or academic authors.
The second reason I bought the book was to learn a bit more about these literary geniuses; to get a feel for the writers and their work on a deeper level than is usually available to the casual reader.
My disappointment in 15 of the 25 essays is largely due to the objectives or perhaps limitations of the writers. Most of the essays I disliked were academic posturing, along the lines of, “look how many books I’ve read!” or “my sources are so obscure no one has ever heard of them so I win!” or they’re written in academicese (I’d elaborate on just what I mean by “academicese” but, like pornography, you’ll know it when you see it).
Most of the enjoyable essays were written by people who are primarily authors and who, presumably, know how to write in such a way as to capture and keep a reader’s attention.
The second reason I bought the book was to learn a bit more about these literary geniuses; to get a feel for the writers and their work on a deeper level than is usually available to the casual reader.
My disappointment in 15 of the 25 essays is largely due to the objectives or perhaps limitations of the writers. Most of the essays I disliked were academic posturing, along the lines of, “look how many books I’ve read!” or “my sources are so obscure no one has ever heard of them so I win!” or they’re written in academicese (I’d elaborate on just what I mean by “academicese” but, like pornography, you’ll know it when you see it).
Most of the enjoyable essays were written by people who are primarily authors and who, presumably, know how to write in such a way as to capture and keep a reader’s attention.
January 31, 2009
I'm one of those who is almost as much interested in the author as I am in the book they produce (at least if the book leads me to think more and wonder why they did what they did). I didn't necessarily agree with the editor's picks of who would be considered a "genius" and who wasn't (I have a hard time with leaving out the Brontes). In fact, after reading this book I've decided that you can't really draw a hard line between the greats and the non-greats. I think some of Epstein's picks definitely had their failed or just mediocre moments. Interestingly, he quotes James Joyce who feels that everything a genius creates is a genius work. Even though Joyce's work astounds me, I still don't believe him on this particular point. But, overall, I thought the collection of essays was an interesting read.
December 31, 2015
Good introduction to the literary greats of the English language.
I am embarrassed to admit that some I was less familiar with than I should have been (*cough* hadn't even heard of them *cough*). Before you judge me, though, pick up the book yourself and have a gander!
The woodcut illustrations are not to be trifled with and they add a special je ne sais quoi to the overall feel of the book.
I am embarrassed to admit that some I was less familiar with than I should have been (*cough* hadn't even heard of them *cough*). Before you judge me, though, pick up the book yourself and have a gander!
The woodcut illustrations are not to be trifled with and they add a special je ne sais quoi to the overall feel of the book.
June 25, 2008
Most of the brief essays are quite good, though some (blessedly few) tread close to academic dreck (old style, rather than postmodern.) The illustrations by Barry Moser are lovely. A nice review for those like me who haven't read most of these in many many years. And some of the essays are quite exceptional.
February 21, 2012
I thought this would be a good primer to many of the Western canon writers I know so little about. Unfortunately, the entries read as if they have been written by grad students with something to prove. Kind of annoying, kind of a snooze. Beowulf on the Beach was a much better book along these same lines.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews