Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop

Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
AND THE PEN ART OF THE ESSAY AWARD

Over the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohnâ€™s reviews forÂ The New York Review of Books,Â The New Yorker, andÂ The New York Times Book ReviewÂ have earned him a reputation as â€œone of the greatest critics of our timeâ€ (Poets &Â Writers). InÂ Waiting for the Barbarians, he brings together twenty-four of his recent essaysâ€”each one glinting with â€œverve and sparkle,â€ â€œacumen and passionâ€â€”on a wide range of subjects, fromÂ AvatarÂ to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with theÂ TitanicÂ to Susan Sontagâ€™sÂ Journals. Trained as a classicist, author of two internationally best-selling memoirs, Mendelsohn moves easily from penetrating considerations of the ways in which the classics continue to make themselves felt in contemporary life and letters (Greek myth in theÂ Spider-ManÂ musical, Anne Carsonâ€™s translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectaclesâ€”none more explosively controversial than his dissection ofÂ Mad Men.

Also gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littellâ€™s Holocaust blockbusterÂ The Kindly OnesÂ to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, â€œPrivate Lives,â€ prefaced by Mendelsohnâ€™s New YorkerÂ essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, NoÃ«l Coward, and Jonathan Franzen.Â Waiting for the BarbariansÂ once again demonstrates that Mendelsohnâ€™s â€œsweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth.â€
Country USA
Brand New York Review Books
Manufacturer New York Review Books
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2012-10-16
EANs 9781590176078

Country	USA
Brand	New York Review Books
Manufacturer	New York Review Books
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2012-10-16
EANs	9781590176078

Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture

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