Art & Ardor: Essays

by Cynthia Ozick

Among the pieces included in this collection of wide-ranging essays are two extended essays on Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf and analyses of the work of contemporaries including Updike and Capote

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Art, Books About Books, Criticism, Writing

306 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 1983

About the author

Recipient of the first Rea Award for the Short Story (in 1976; other winners Rea honorees include Lorrie Moore, John Updike, Alice Munro), an American Academy of Arts and Letters Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award, and the PEN/Malamud award in 2008.

Upon publication of her 1983 The Shawl, Edmund White wrote in the New York Times, "Miss Ozick strikes me as the best American writer to have emerged in recent years...Judaism has given to her what Catholicism gave to Flannery O'Connor."

Reviews

[Tony Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ozick's collection suffers from an overly didactic air with somewhat impenetrable prose in several of the essays in this collection. However, "A Drugstore in Winter" captivates; her essays on feminism resonate deeply as a critique of academic culture; and her essay on Issac Bashevis Singer makes me want to read all his short stories. Your effort will be rewarded if you see this volume through.

[Ayelet Waldman]

I feel like I learned more about writing from this small essay collection than from anything I ever read before.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are some captivating pieces in here - particularly regarding Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, and some pre-second wave feminism- overall I found many essays to have not aged well or just be a bit of a slog to get through...

[Ke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of these essays are devoted to the craft of writing and literature. A great guide for any aspiring writers out there.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

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