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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... later writers were too cautiously professional to try; and I, reading one of my earliest grownup books, was too young and inexperienced to be worried by the violations of form. In that sense, we were ideally matched. It's hard to ...
... later writers were too cautiously professional to try; and I, reading one of my earliest grownup books, was too young and inexperienced to be worried by the violations of form. In that sense, we were ideally matched. It's hard to ...
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... later, when the knight and his squire reach Barcelona, they are invited to witness the operation of a ship's galleys: like "magic," the ship moves as the result of the rowers' backs being flayed. "What have these poor wretches done that ...
... later, when the knight and his squire reach Barcelona, they are invited to witness the operation of a ship's galleys: like "magic," the ship moves as the result of the rowers' backs being flayed. "What have these poor wretches done that ...
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... later.) More to the point, I hadn't given much thought, one way or the other, to the idea of crazy people. Ineversaw any, and the ones I heard about were all locked away in huge state asylums or otherwise kept out of sight. Now, of ...
... later.) More to the point, I hadn't given much thought, one way or the other, to the idea of crazy people. Ineversaw any, and the ones I heard about were all locked away in huge state asylums or otherwise kept out of sight. Now, of ...
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... later, those who have survived are still there. If I saw a raggedly dressed, dirty-faced, nonsense-jabbering lunatic even once during my entire Palo Alto childhood, I have managed to obliterate the memory. My son sees such people every ...
... later, those who have survived are still there. If I saw a raggedly dressed, dirty-faced, nonsense-jabbering lunatic even once during my entire Palo Alto childhood, I have managed to obliterate the memory. My son sees such people every ...
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... later time—they had been collapsed, for me, into an undifferentiated past). I had read few if any nineteenth-century novels, so I had no firm expectations about novelistic form or plot construction or character revelation. I knew Don ...
... later time—they had been collapsed, for me, into an undifferentiated past). I had read few if any nineteenth-century novels, so I had no firm expectations about novelistic form or plot construction or character revelation. I knew Don ...
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