Waiting for the Barbarians

Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Ancient & Classical, American, Books & Reading
Cover of the book Waiting for the Barbarians by Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Review Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Daniel Mendelsohn ISBN: 9781590176092
Publisher: New York Review Books Publication: October 16, 2012
Imprint: New York Review Books Language: English
Author: Daniel Mendelsohn
ISBN: 9781590176092
Publisher: New York Review Books
Publication: October 16, 2012
Imprint: New York Review Books
Language: English

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

Over the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohn’s reviews for The New York Review of BooksThe New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review have earned him a reputation as “one of the greatest critics of our time” (Poets & Writers). In Waiting for the Barbarians, he brings together twenty-four of his recent essays—each one glinting with “verve and sparkle,” “acumen and passion”—on a wide range of subjects, from Avatar to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with the Titanic to Susan Sontag’s 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 the Spider-Man musical, Anne Carson’s translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectacles—none more explosively controversial than his dissection of Mad Men.

Also gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littell’s Holocaust blockbuster The Kindly Ones to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, “Private Lives,” prefaced by Mendelsohn’sNew Yorker essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, Noël Coward, and Jonathan Franzen. Waiting for the Barbarians once again demonstrates that Mendelsohn’s “sweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth.”

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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

Over the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohn’s reviews for The New York Review of BooksThe New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review have earned him a reputation as “one of the greatest critics of our time” (Poets & Writers). In Waiting for the Barbarians, he brings together twenty-four of his recent essays—each one glinting with “verve and sparkle,” “acumen and passion”—on a wide range of subjects, from Avatar to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with the Titanic to Susan Sontag’s 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 the Spider-Man musical, Anne Carson’s translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectacles—none more explosively controversial than his dissection of Mad Men.

Also gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littell’s Holocaust blockbuster The Kindly Ones to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, “Private Lives,” prefaced by Mendelsohn’sNew Yorker essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, Noël Coward, and Jonathan Franzen. Waiting for the Barbarians once again demonstrates that Mendelsohn’s “sweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth.”

More books from New York Review Books

Cover of the book The Milk of Dreams by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Party Going by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Political Action by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Totempole by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Pitch Dark by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Siege of Krishnapur by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book The Mangan Inheritance by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Slum Wolf by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book A View of the Harbour by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Arzee the Dwarf by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Speedboat by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Dead Souls by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book A Schoolboy's Diary and Other Stories by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Daniel Mendelsohn
Cover of the book Memories by Daniel Mendelsohn
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy