|
The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent: Selected Essays
|
| Price: | CDN$ 27.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $39. Details |
Availability: Usually ships in 11 to 14 days
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca
20 new or used available from CDN$ 18.71
Average customer review:
(6 )
Product Description
Bringing together the thoughts of one of American literature’s sharpest cultural critics, this compendium will open the eyes of a whole new audience to the work of Lionel Trilling. Trilling was a strenuous thinker who was proud to think too much.” As an intellectual he did not spare his own kind, and though he did not consider himself a rationalist, he was grounded in the world.
This collection features 32 of Trilling’s essays on a range of topics, from Jane Austen to George Orwell and from the Kinsey Report to Lolita. Also included are Trilling’s seminal essays Art and Neurosis” and Manners, Morals, and the Novel.” Many of the pieces made their initial appearances in periodicals such as The Partisan Review and Commentary; most were later reprinted in essay collections. This new gathering of his writings demonstrates again Trilling’s patient, thorough style. Considering the problems of life”in art, literature, culture, and intellectual lifewas, to him, a vital occupation, even if he did not expect to get anything as simple or encouraging as answers.” The intellectual journey was the true goal.
No matter the subject, Trilling’s arguments come together easily, as if constructing complicated defenses and attacks were singularly simple for his well-honed mind. The more he wrote on a subject and the more intricate his reasoning, the more clear that subject became; his elaboration is all function and no filler. Wrestling with Trilling’s challenging work still yields rewards today, his ideas speaking to issues that transcend decades and even centuries.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #629071 in Books
- Published on: 2009-08-05
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 1.30" h x 5.70" w x 8.10" l, 1.45 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 592 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Trilling (1905-74) epitomized the idea of the 1950s New York intellectual. In opposition to the prevailing theories of the New Critics, he adopted a broader approach: the study of the interconnections between literature and culture. This collection features 32 of his essays on a range of topics, from Jane Austen to George Orwell, from the Kinsey Report to Lolita. Also included are Trilling's seminal essays "Art and Neurosis" and "Manners, Morals, and the Novel." Initially appearing in periodicals like the Partisan Review and Commentary, most of these pieces were later reprinted in Trilling's essay collections, which included The Liberal Imagination, Beyond Culture, and the posthumously published Speaking of Literature and Society. Recommended for public and academic libraries, especially those lacking the earlier collections.
-William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Trilling (1905^-74) was an enormously influential critic who vehemently eschewed simplistic or emotional responses to art or morality. The author of many works, he was especially exigent, to use one of his favorite words, in his essays, most of which have long been out of print. Republished now in this substantial volume edited and vividly introduced by Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor for the New Republic and author of Kaddish (1998), these essays and lectures, still fresh and provocative, cover topics ranging from Austen, James, and Frost to the connections between art, neurosis, and politics. Distrustful of rapture and keen on reading literature as, in Wieseltier's words, "documents for a moral history of culture," Trilling embraced complexity and nuance and held critical integrity in the highest esteem. His essays possess great intellectual weight, and their richness, deep seriousness of thought, and sonorous vocabulary and syntax are balanced by a lashing wit and remarkable energy. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"There was never just one thing, in [Trilling's] work. He was mentally indefatigable; there was order in his writing, but there was no repose."--Leon Wieseltier
