Overview

The heyday of reading is probably behind us, but in these shrewd and witty essays Brooke Allen examines the relics of the saints (and sinners) who made it what it was. Focused as much on literary lives as oeuvres, she excavates the glories of August Strindberg, George Sand, Patricia Highsmith, Anthony Powell, Truman Capote and even the late great diarist Richard Burton (who also did some acting). There are 22 essays in all, drawn from the New York Times, the Atlantic, the New Criterion and elsewhere, and Allen offers delight and surprise on every page. If the age of reading isn't yet behind you, get this book in front of you. ""Her prose swaggers with an authority drawn from true learning, and she cracks her snobbery like a whip."" - John Freeman, The Wall Street Journal

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9781966218128

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Reviews

""Brooke Allen has that amazing gift of an elegant pen at the service of an elegant mind. She is one of the country's finest literary essayists-scrupulous, discerning, utterly direct and at the same time always surprising."" - Jane Kramer ""Allen's byline is a guarantee of crisp, clear common sense-a rare and precious commodity in the fogbound world of contemporary literary criticism."" - Terry Teachout ""Over the years she has developed an odd and deeply appealing tone of voice-at once wry and exclamatory. A lively enemy of pomp and cant, conformity and confusion, Brooke Allen displays a sensibility we should all be grateful for."" - Brad Leithauser ""Smart, witty, remarkably literate, and a talented cultural historian, Brooke Allen not only places the works she writes about in their historical context, but offers us new critical insights to guide our reading."" - David Nasaw ""Her prose swaggers with an authority drawn from true learning, and she cracks her snobbery like a whip ... Ms. Allen works against the grain. She questions sacred assumptions and suspends judgment on all but the writing."" - John Freeman, The Wall Street Journal ""She 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 ""Her writers are spirits indeed; Allen channels them earnestly, and in presenting them unpolished she honors their memory."" - National Post (Canada) ""In an age of academic specialization, few writers read so broadly and write so well for a general audience."" - Larry T. Shillock, The Bloomsbury Review ""Allen is one of the best American literary reviewers working today."" - David Mazzella, The Houston Chronicle ""The most high-level, erudite gossip imaginable."" - Evelyn Toynton, The New York Times Book Review ""Saucy and shrewd . . . literary erudition with a lithe yet pithy writing style."" - Booklist ""Enlightening, fun, eminently readable, and wonderfully, woefully politically incorrect."" - Meghan Keane, National Review ""Brooke Allen is the rare literary critic who is always worth reading."" - Adam Kirsch, The New York Sun

Author Information

Brooke Allen has published two previous essay collections. Her work has appeared in The New Criterion, The Wall Street Journal, The Hudson Review, The New York Times, The Nation, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. With a PhD from Columbia University, she has taught literature at Bennington College and history of thought in its prison program. She and her husband, the photographer Peter Aaron, have two daughters and live in New York's Hudson Valley.

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