The Oxford Book of Essays

The Oxford Book of Essays

by JohnGross (Editor)

Synopsis

The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in this volume. A wide-ranging collection, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favourites, and recent examples felt to deserve being better known. A particular feature is the amount of space allotted to American essayists, from Benjamin Franklin to John Updike and beyond. The anthology opens with comments on the nature of truth and closes with a consideration of the novels of Judith Krantz. Some of the other topics discussed in its pages are anger, pleasure, Gandhi, Beau Brummell, wasps, party-going, gangsters, plumbers, Beethoven, potato crisps, the importance of being the right size, and the demolition of Westminster Abbey.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 704
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
Published: 24 Sep 1998

ISBN 10: 019288106X
ISBN 13: 9780192881069

Media Reviews
This is a collection that succeeds in demonstrating the marvelous variety of the genre. --The Christian Science Monitor
A distinguished miscellany. --The Chicago Tribune
Most of the essays are very good indeed....A seductive anthology. --The Economist


This is a collection that succeeds in demonstrating the marvelous variety of the genre. --The Christian Science Monitor
A distinguished miscellany. --The Chicago Tribune
Most of the essays are very good indeed....A seductive anthology. --The Economist

This is a collection that succeeds in demonstrating the marvelous variety of the genre. --The Christian Science Monitor
A distinguished miscellany. --The Chicago Tribune
Most of the essays are very good indeed....A seductive anthology. --The Economist


This is a collection that succeeds in demonstrating the marvelous variety of the genre. --The Christian Science Monitor


A distinguished miscellany. --The Chicago Tribune


Most of the essays are very good indeed....A seductive anthology. --The Economist


Author Bio

John Gross is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters (1969) and editor of The Oxford Book of Aphorisms (1983), among other publications. He was editor of the Times Literary Supplement from 1974 to 1981, and is currently theatre critic of the Sunday Telegraph.