Description
Book SynopsisIn eighteen essays, Ms. Allen explores the lives and work of some of the last century's most brilliant and eccentric literary talents. Ms. Allen's appraisals, which combine extensive biographical information with new critical insights, richly illustrate the tenuous and often bizarre links between character and talent, between historical circumstances and individual vision. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Trade ReviewShe fills her writing with intelligence and equanimity, making her boldness seem really not so wild after all, but the logical conclusion of good sense and an orderly mind. -- David Skinner * The Weekly Standard *
One of the most valuable critics.... Her reviews of novels and novelists are invariably on the mark and written with grace. -- William H. Pritchard
Lucid and incisive, fair-minded and fair-spoken...wonderful.... A lively enemy of pomp and cant, conformity and confusion. -- Brad Leithauser
Allen's byline is a guarantee of crisp, clear common sense.... What a pleasure to read a bookful of her best essays. -- Terry Teachout
One of the country's finest literary essayists—scrupulous, discerning, utterly direct and at the same time always surprising. -- Jane Kramer
Smart, witty, remarkably literate, and a talented cultural historian.... Allen offers us new critical insights. -- David Nasaw
Engrossing...fair-minded essays...nicely edged, combining the right amount of literary criticism with biographical insight and social history.... Unique and enlightening.... Recommended. * Library Journal *
A satisfying collection of essays...memorable...accomplishes what all good criticism should. * New York Sun *
Readers may feel they have not just read about these authors, but met them for the first time in a long, long while. -- John Freeman * The Wall Street Journal *
A critic in whom sense decidedly predominates.... Filled with the most high-level, erudite gossip imaginable. -- Evelyn Toynton * The New York Times *
Enlightening, fun, eminently readable, and wonderfully, woefully politically correct. -- Meghan Keane * National Review *
Allen has taken a novel approach. -- John Linsenmeyer * Greenwich Times *
An agreeable mix of biographical background and astute literary judgement with a dash of gossip.... Brooke Allen offers wide-ranging, frequently provocative reflections on literature and the art of writing. -- Lorna Williams * The Washington Times *
[A] delightful series of essays. -- James Panero * Armavirumque *
