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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... reason, I found myself in the luxurious position of being able to reread. I had the necessary background—that is, I had read a lot of books when I was younger—and what's more, I had the necessary time. Time is a gift, but it can be a ...
... reason, I found myself in the luxurious position of being able to reread. I had the necessary background—that is, I had read a lot of books when I was younger—and what's more, I had the necessary time. Time is a gift, but it can be a ...
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... reasons, I can't imagine choosing not to read any new books. (By "new" I mean new to me: not necessarily books that have just been published, but books which I have only now encountered for the first time, whether they are just out or ...
... reasons, I can't imagine choosing not to read any new books. (By "new" I mean new to me: not necessarily books that have just been published, but books which I have only now encountered for the first time, whether they are just out or ...
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... reason that I had not then read any of these other books. Nor did Inecessarily think of Don Quixote when I read them for the first time. But things which caught my fancy on their own—the asylum theatricals in Middleton and Rowley's The ...
... reason that I had not then read any of these other books. Nor did Inecessarily think of Don Quixote when I read them for the first time. But things which caught my fancy on their own—the asylum theatricals in Middleton and Rowley's The ...
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... reasons Don Quixote has not dated is the fact that we are still having this discussion. Having written a book about murders and executions, argued fiercely for years about the inviolability of the First Amendment, and raised a teenage ...
... reasons Don Quixote has not dated is the fact that we are still having this discussion. Having written a book about murders and executions, argued fiercely for years about the inviolability of the First Amendment, and raised a teenage ...
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... reasons, but with much the same warmth as Antonio's, I find myself always in opposition to the "cure" camp. Whenever the curate, the barber, the housekeeper, the niece, and Sanson Carrasco come onstage, I know we are destined to hear ...
... reasons, but with much the same warmth as Antonio's, I find myself always in opposition to the "cure" camp. Whenever the curate, the barber, the housekeeper, the niece, and Sanson Carrasco come onstage, I know we are destined to hear ...
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