Nothing Remains the Same: Rereading and RememberingA New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year: A look at the pleasures and surprises of rereading. Compared with reading, the act of rereading is far more personal—it involves a complex interaction of our past selves, our present selves, and literature. With candor and humor, this “inspired intellectual romp, part memoir, part criticism” takes us on a guided tour of the author’s own return to books she once knew—from the plays of Shakespeare to twentieth-century novels by Kingsley Amis and Ian McEwan, from the childhood favorite I Capture the Castle to classic novels such as Anna Karenina and Huckleberry Finn, from nonfiction by Henry Adams to poetry by Wordsworth—as she reflects on how the passage of time and the experience of aging has affected her perceptions of them (Lawrence Weschler). A cultural critic and the acclaimed author of Why I Read, Wendy Lesser conveys an infectious love of reading and inspires us all to take another look at the books we’ve read to find the unexpected treasures they might offer. “Delightful.” —Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce “Anyone who has ever approached a once favorite book later in life . . . will find in this memoir moments of bittersweet recognition.” —The New York Times Book Review “Reflect[s] deeply and candidly on how a reader’s life experiences alter her perceptions of literature . . . [Lesser] has truly fascinating and original things to say about a compelling assortment of writers, including George Orwell, George Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, Dostoyevsky, and Shakespeare.” —Booklist |
From inside the book
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... actually a bracing, larkish reinvention of them both." —Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder "Sometimes we have the notion that a book is like a can of peas—once opened, devoured, it is finished. Good books are ...
... actually a bracing, larkish reinvention of them both." —Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder "Sometimes we have the notion that a book is like a can of peas—once opened, devoured, it is finished. Good books are ...
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... actually live in the past, and I am certainly not ready to stop living. Inever intended my rereading book to be a purely conservative measure, keeping out the new in favor of the old; I didn't ever stop reading new books while I was ...
... actually live in the past, and I am certainly not ready to stop living. Inever intended my rereading book to be a purely conservative measure, keeping out the new in favor of the old; I didn't ever stop reading new books while I was ...
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... actually sense what is going on in a work of literature, you are sensing something more particular even than life itself (since life tends to have more repetition, more boredom, more plain old dead space than good literature usually ...
... actually sense what is going on in a work of literature, you are sensing something more particular even than life itself (since life tends to have more repetition, more boredom, more plain old dead space than good literature usually ...
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... actually his La Manchan neighbor, the bachelor Sanson Carrasco, disguised in full chivalric regalia. It is all part of a humanitarian ploy to get the deluded Don to return home, which is the penalty that the victorious knight has ...
... actually his La Manchan neighbor, the bachelor Sanson Carrasco, disguised in full chivalric regalia. It is all part of a humanitarian ploy to get the deluded Don to return home, which is the penalty that the victorious knight has ...
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... actually met Jim Dixon or Cassandra Mortmain. But if you are someone who cares deeply about reading, you may find that you respond to the important books in your life, and especially to those early in your life, very much as you do to ...
... actually met Jim Dixon or Cassandra Mortmain. But if you are someone who cares deeply about reading, you may find that you respond to the important books in your life, and especially to those early in your life, very much as you do to ...
Contents
An Education | |
A Young Womans Mistakes | |
All Kinds of Madness | |
A Small Masterpiece | |
The Tree of Knowledge | |
McEwan inTime | |
The Strange Case of Huck and Jim | |
A Literary Career | |
Hitchcocks Vertigo | |
Back Matter | |
Back Cover | |
Spine | |
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Common terms and phrases
actors actually Adams's Aglaya Anna Anna Karenina become believe called Capture the Castle Casaubon Cervantes chapter character child childhood comes criticism Don Quixote Dorothea Dostoyevsky dream essay exactly experience fact feel felt fiction fool garden George Eliot George Orwell Henry Adams Henry James Hermione Howells Huck Huckleberry Finn humor husband idea idiot imagine instance Jenny Diski kind knew Lawrence Leontes literary live look Lucky Jim Madeleine McEwan mean memory ment Middlemarch Milton mother movie Myshkin narrator Nastasya never novel once Orwell Orwell's Paradise Lost perhaps person play pleasure plot poem prince Prospero readers remember rereading Road to Wigan Rocking-Horse Rocking-Horse Winner Sancho Panza scene Scotty seems sense Shakespeare sort story strange tell Tempest things thought tion true turn Vertigo WENDY LESSER Wigan Pier woman word Wordsworth writing