- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books USA (Dec 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679743499
- ISBN-13: 978-0679743491
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 2 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,913,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'Enthusiasm and intelligence: these are the essential qualities of the critic. Calvino, himself a novelist of rare quality, possessed both generously. This is a book to read for itself, and also because it will send you back to other books to read, either again in a new way, or for the first time... Superb' Daily Telegraph 'This volume itself is a classic book at bedtime, a seductive invitation to forgotten opportunities or rereading' The Times
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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Product Description
From the internationally-acclaimed author of some of this century's most breathtakingly original novels comes this posthumous collection of thirty-six literary essays that will make any fortunate reader view the old classics in a dazzling new light.
Learn why Lara, not Zhivago, is the center of Pasternak's masterpiece, Dr. Zhivago, and why Cyrano de Bergerac is the forerunner of modern-day science-fiction writers. Learn how many odysseys The Odyssey contains, and why Hemingway's Nick Adams stories are a pinnacle of twentieth-century literature. From Ovid to Pavese, Xenophon to Dickens, Galileo to Gadda, Calvino covers the classics he has loved most with essays that are fresh, accessible, and wise. Why Read the Classics? firmly establishes Calvino among the rare likes of Nabokov, Borges, and Lawrence--writers whose criticism is as vibrant and unique as their groundbreaking fiction.
Learn why Lara, not Zhivago, is the center of Pasternak's masterpiece, Dr. Zhivago, and why Cyrano de Bergerac is the forerunner of modern-day science-fiction writers. Learn how many odysseys The Odyssey contains, and why Hemingway's Nick Adams stories are a pinnacle of twentieth-century literature. From Ovid to Pavese, Xenophon to Dickens, Galileo to Gadda, Calvino covers the classics he has loved most with essays that are fresh, accessible, and wise. Why Read the Classics? firmly establishes Calvino among the rare likes of Nabokov, Borges, and Lawrence--writers whose criticism is as vibrant and unique as their groundbreaking fiction.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you have read a bit of Calvino then you will know enough to trust the title. If you have ever been in a book shop and not known what book to buy, this should be your guide. If intelligence were rated on ones ability to perceive the same thing in different ways, then reading the classics (after reading this book) will provide that intelligence.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As always, Calvino's writing is elegant--witty on the surface and introspective below it. And rather than merely answering the self-imposed question, he gives us a luring introduction to books and authors we haven't read, and a nourishing encouragement to read anew those we have. Thus, his answer is intuitive and engrossing, lacking only in more non-Western examples.
6 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Beautifully produced and filled with Calvino's calm, yet amusing, insights into his selection of classics.
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