The Irresponsible Self

On Laughter and the Novel

James Wood

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English

Pimlico
15 September 2005

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Prose: non-fiction; Literary essays; Literature: history & criticism; Literary studies: general

A collection of dazzling essays from one of the world's finest and most controversial literary critics.

When James Wood's first collection of essays, The Broken Estate, was published in 1999, the reviewers hailed a master critic. The common thread in Wood's latest collection of essays is what makes us laugh - and the book is an attempt to distinguish between the perhaps rather limited English comedy (as seen in Waugh, for example) and a 'continental' tragic-comedy, which he sees as real, universal and quixotic.

A particularly acerbic, and very funny, essay - which has been widely celebrated - deals with Zadie Smith, Rushdie, Pynchon and DeLillo; its title, 'Hysterical Realism', has already entered the phrasebook of literary language.

With its brilliant studies of Shakespeare, Dickens and Dostoevsky, Naipaul, Pritchett and Bellow, The Irresponsible Self offers more exhilarating despatches from one of our finest living critics.

By: James Wood
Imprint: Pimlico
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 3.397kg
ISBN: 9781844130979
ISBN 10: 1844130975
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 15 September 2005
Recommended Age: From 0 years
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

JAMES WOOD is a staff writer at the New Yorker and a visiting lecturer at Harvard. In addition to How Fiction Works, he is the author of two essay collections, The Broken Estate and The Irresponsible Self, a novel, The Book Against God.

Reviews for The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel

This is a collection to be read by anyone who wouldn't normally dream of reading literary criticism * Financial Times * The most urgent and morally demanding critic around is the brilliant James Wood... A second powerful collection * Guardian * A stylish writer as well as a clear-sighted reader. His prose bristles with the sort of epigrammatic brilliance that asks challenging questions even when providing answers * Spectator * Breathtakingly good... James Wood is pretty much as good a general critic of literary fiction as you'll find writing in English at the moment * The Times * Wood is one of the finest critics at work today, heir to Coleridge, Hazlitt and V. S. Pritchett...He combines the breadth and seriousness of Edmund Wilson with the pellucid prose style of Cyril Connolly...Wood pursues his craft with a high seriousness the like of which we had not thought to see again after the death of Lionel Trilling -- John Banville * Irish Times *