{"product_id":"understanding-the-essay-9781554810208","title":"Understanding the Essay","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book on how to read the essay, one that demonstrates how reading is inextricably tied to the art of writing. It aims to treat the essay with the close attention that has been given to other literary genres, and in doing so it suggests the beauty and depth of the form as a whole. At once personal appreciations and acute critical assessments, the pieces collected here broaden our perspective on the essay as a major literary art, tracing its history from William Hazlitt to Joan Didion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eUnderstanding the Essay\u003c\/em\u003e is a magnificently intelligent examination of the essay’s diverse pleasures, with fresh, revealing looks at writers from Montaigne to David Foster Wallace. Bravo to Patricia Foster and Jeff Porter for providing this important, insightful, readable resource. Teachers, students, and essayists will be bending back pages and marking the margins for years to come.” — Dinty W. Moore, author of \u003cem\u003eCrafting the Personal Essay\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eUnderstanding the Essay\u003c\/em\u003e is a warm and intelligent addition to our understanding of a form seemingly built for confusion. Foster and Porter know their subject: the subtle demands and inventions of the form; the tension between a narrator and her unsettled sibling, the author; the importance of integrity to both the known and the inventive voice. The brief biographies create a nuanced context in which to read the work; the analytic essays offer insight into work we think we know—or have yet to explore—in such a way that we can read as though for the first time.” — Sallie Tisdale\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgements\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction: “A History and Poetics of the Essay,” \u003cem\u003eJeff Porter\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to David Foster Wallace\u003cbr\u003eReading “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” \u003cem\u003eJeff Porter \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Anne Carson\u003cbr\u003eReading “On Trout,” \u003cem\u003eEula Biss\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Jamaica Kincaid\u003cbr\u003eReading \u003cem\u003eA Small Place, Donald Morrill\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Scott Russell Sanders\u003cbr\u003eReading “Under the Influence,” \u003cem\u003eJames McKean\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Joy Williams\u003cbr\u003eReading “The Case Against Babies,” \u003cem\u003eSara Levine\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Joan Didion\u003cbr\u003eReading “Georgia O’Keeffe,” \u003cem\u003ePatricia Foster\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to John McPhee\u003cbr\u003eReading \u003cem\u003eEncounters with the Archdruid, Adam Hochschild\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Cynthia Ozick\u003cbr\u003eReading “A Drugstore in Winter,” \u003cem\u003eSven Birkerts\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to James Baldwin\u003cbr\u003eReading “Notes of a Native Son,” \u003cem\u003eHonor Moore\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Seymour Krim\u003cbr\u003eReading “For My Brothers and Sisters in the Failure Business,”\u003cem\u003eVivian Gornick\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Ralph Ellison\u003cbr\u003eReading “The Little Man in Chehaw Station,” \u003cem\u003eGayle Pemberton\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to George Orwell\u003cbr\u003eReading “A Hanging,” \u003cem\u003eCarl H. Klaus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to F. Scott Fitzgerald\u003cbr\u003eReading “The Crack-Up,” \u003cem\u003ePatricia Hampl\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Virginia Woolf\u003cbr\u003eReading “Street Haunting,” \u003cem\u003eMarilyn Abildskov\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Mark Twain\u003cbr\u003eReading “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” \u003cem\u003eRobin Hemley\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to William Hazlitt\u003cbr\u003eReading “On the Pleasure of Hating,” \u003cem\u003ePhillip Lopate\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Charles Lamb\u003cbr\u003eReading “New Year’s Eve,” \u003cem\u003eDavid Lazar\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Jonathan Swift\u003cbr\u003eReading “A Modest Proposal,” \u003cem\u003eXu Xi\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction to Michel de Montaigne\u003cbr\u003eReading “On Some Verses of Virgil,” \u003cem\u003eDavid Hamilton\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKey Terms for the Essay\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContributors\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Broadview Press Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50083757261143,"sku":"9781554810208","price":38.66,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781554810208.jpg?v=1740724473","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/understanding-the-essay-9781554810208","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}