Break the rules

The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief

James Wood's masterpiece reveals the explorations and limitations of twenty-two masters of Western classic fiction
--------
This book, Wood's first collection of literary criticism, published ten years before The Machine of Fiction, was the first showcase for his exceptional talent. By then, Wood had already honed his critical skills for many years. Having won the British Press Award upon completing his doctorate, he had also spent five years as the lead writer for the literary review section of The Guardian, one of Britain's most prestigious magazines. This gave the fresh yet sophisticated voice of Breaking the Rules. The book opens with a critique of Thomas More, author of the 16th-century masterpiece Utopia, and progresses to Sebald, whose work has become a popular reading sensation among Chinese readers in recent years. Each essay is imbued with crucial cultural context and reveals Wood's unique insights. Furthermore, while each of the essays in this book stands alone, taken together, they reveal a hidden thread that has convulsed the Western intellectual landscape over recent centuries.
--------
With his characteristically impassioned voice, James Wood has advanced some of the most difficult issues of fiction and realism: what the imagination can be. He is a true lover of literature. His deeply felt and passionately argued criticism is thrilling in its scope and moral seriousness.
—Susan Sontag "His simplest descriptions can pry open the most complex ideas... He can extract the most innocuous details to satirize a writer... In "Out of Order," Wood explores that unique fictional world with astonishing acuity and precision. In one example after another, he gives you a rare understanding of the fictional geography of that world."
—Christopher Lyman Haupt, The New York Times
Few critics these days… can remind us that talking about literature is part of it. To add passion, precision, and breadth of experience to that talking is a rare and precious talent: our good news is that Wood has it and we have Wood.
—Gabriel Josipovic, The Times Literary Supplement
Wood is a gifted close reader, and this collection of criticism is full of brilliant writing, sometimes juicy, sometimes sturdy, sometimes argumentative, sometimes arrogant and sarcastic, full of passion and yet not without detail.
—John Banville, The Irish Times

2024-09-01

北京联合出版公司

New Thinking

491

9787559676559