Michael Dirda

Michael Dirda is the author of two collections of essays, Readings and Bound to Please, the memoir An Open Book, and, most recently, Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life. In 1993 he received the Pulitzer Prize for his reviews and essays in The Washington Post Book World. Before drifting into journalism, Dirda earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell University, concentrating on medieval studies and European romanticism.

From the Review

May 15, 2008: An Epic of the Everglades

Shadow Country: A New Rendering of the Watson Legend by Peter Matthiessen

December 20, 2007: The Wand of the Enchanter

The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates, 1973–1982 edited by Greg Johnson

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

The Museum of Dr. Moses: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates: Conversations, 1970–2006 edited by Greg Johnson

May 31, 2007: The Pleasures of Casanova

History of My Life by Giacomo Casanova, translated from the French by Willard R. Trask

History of My Life by Giacomo Casanova, translated from the French by Willard R. Trask, abridged by Peter Washington, with an introduction by John Julius Norwich

Casanova's Women: The Great Seducer and the Women He Loved by Judith Summers

March 15, 2007: The Way We Live Now

Surveillance by Jonathan Raban

January 11, 2007: Dante: The Supreme Realist

From New York Review Books

Dante An inspiring introduction to one of world's greatest poets and a brilliantly argued essay in the history of ideas.