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James Wood, an important contemporary literary critic, writes this personal piece to praise and criticize works and people, and his sharp views are so exciting that you can't help but feel satisfied. This newly revised translation has been polished word by word...
The publication of "Out of Order", "The Irresponsible Self" and "The Machine of Fiction" made James Wood a leader among his contemporaries. The subsequent "Private Cargo" proved that he was not only a cold-faced judge who sharply criticized contemporary novels, but also an appreciator who was good at discovering the advantages of novels.
Through these 25 passionate and brilliant critical essays, the author not only covers classic writers such as Hardy, Tolstoy, Lermontov, and Edmund Wilson, but also effortlessly applies his encyclopedic understanding of literature to analyses of important contemporary writers such as Cormac McCarthy, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and V.S. Naipaul. He even includes a personal music review from the author: a tribute to Keith Moon and the Lost Drummer (which was included in "The Best Music Reviews of 2011"). His essay on George Orwell (included in Christopher Hitchens's "The Best American Writings of 2010") offers a deeper exploration of British history and current politics, presenting the author's rare perspective.
Private Cargo presents a richer and more complex critic, James Wood, and is an unmissable reading experience for anyone interested in contemporary literature. This translation has been extensively revised and is now fresh and new.
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Wood is a brilliant critic. He brings writers to life with unparalleled vividness. It's like a truly great teacher teaching in person.
—William Rice, Evening Standard
His writing deserves all the intellectual swirlingness, literary acumen, and spiritual seriousness it deserves…Wood writes like a dream.
—Daniel Mendelsohn, The New York Times Book Review
Throughout these twenty-five essays, Wood repeatedly focuses on moments when writers transcend themselves, when they break free from their own established style… These are the novel’s “private goods,” and Wood is an impressive guide through them: erudite and funny, sympathetic and scathing.
Only some of the writers discussed will be new to the reader, but viewed through Wood’s lens, even the most celebrated novels will be stripped of their masks, appearing naked and unfamiliar before us.
—Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (2013 Booker Prize judge), The Guardian
He constantly draws us back to Chekhov, Tolstoy, Flaubert—the classic masters, Wood never fails—for a constant stream of psychological insight. No one is better at warning us against the dulling effects of overfamiliarity, no other critic is closer to the text than he is…
But "Private Portions" stands out for what it doesn't include: it has no introduction. Wood doesn't establish a unifying theme... Our most persistent critic is changing, and within his carefully woven arguments, he's begun to make room for the reader, a whole new kind of adventure.
—Palu Sehgal, The New York Times
James Wood is a brilliant retrospective. His work harks back to a time before scholarship and imported theories dominated the critical landscape, when accessible writing reigned supreme. Combining seriousness with readable prose, Wood's critical style is remarkably accessible to the general reader.
—Pete Carty, The Independent

2024-10-01

北京联合出版公司

New Thinking

518

9787559678966