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Essays & Criticism

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The Company They Kept (paperback) Edited by Barbara Epstein Robert B. Silvers Now in paperback. Our most remarkable writers share what has influenced them the most: each other. "These wonderful reminiscences will renew readers' appreciation for those unpredictable joys shared between all close friends." —Booklist Price: $15.96 (20% off)

The Liberal Imagination By Lionel Trilling Introduction by Louis Menand The great critic's masterwork makes a case for the necessity of the imaginative works in a society ever more worshipful of the liberal ideals of rationality and progress. "Trilling...shows how criticism, written with grace, style, and a self-questioning cast of mind, can itself become a form of literature, as well as a valuable contribution to how we think about society.—Morris Dickstein Price: $11.96 (25% off)

The Voyage That Never Ends By Malcolm Lowry Edited and with an introduction by Michael Hofmann A self-portrait of one of the 20th century's most compelling and tragic writers, The Voyage that Never Ends draws on Lowry's stories, several unfinished novels, poems, and letters to present a picture of the whole range his accomplishment to set alongside his masterpiece, Under the Volcano. Price: $20.96 (25% off)

The Tiger in the House By Carl Van Vechten Introduction by Stephen Budiansky The erudite and charming Carl Van Vechten sings the praises of the most enigmatic of human companions in this witty, learned, and unabashedly opinionated book. Price: $17.21 (25% off)

Dante By Erich Auerbach Introduction by Michael Dirda An inspiring introduction to one of world's greatest poets and a brilliantly argued essay in the history of ideas. Price: $11.21 (25% off)

The Company They Kept Edited by Barbara Epstein Robert B. Silvers Our most remarkable writers share what has influenced them the most: each other. Price: $19.96 (20% off)

The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual By Harold W. Cruse Introduction by Stanley Crouch A landmark work of African-American thought written in a period of immense social ferment. Price: $13.46 (25% off)

There You Are By Thomas Flanagan Preface by Seamus Heaney Edited and with an introduction by Christopher Cahill In these essays and reviews, Flanagan reflects on past and present Irish history, on writers such as Yeats, O'Neill, Brian Moore, and O'Hara, as well as on Fitzgerald, Joyce, Mary McCarthy, Eugene O'Neill, Darcy O'Brien, Hemingway, and the films of John Ford. Price: $22.36 (20% off)

Part of Our Time By Murray Kempton Introduction by David Remnick Through brilliant portraits of real persons who created the myths and realities of the 1930s, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Murray Kempton brings that turbulent decade to life. Price: $12.71 (25% off)

Paris and Elsewhere By Richard Cobb Preface by Julian Barnes Collecting memoirs, portraits of favorite haunts, appreciations of Simenon and Queneau, René Clair and Brassaï, and including the famous polemic "The Assassination of Paris," Paris and Elsewhere shows us a France unglimpsed by tourists. Price: $13.46 (25% off)

American Humor By Constance Rourke Introduction by Greil Marcus Constance Rourke's pioneering "study of the national character" examines such legendary figures as the Yankee, the backwoodsman, and the minstrel singer to show how the popular comic imagination contributed to America's changing self-awareness. Price: $11.96 (25% off)

Unknown Masterpieces Edited by Edwin Frank In this original collection, several of today's finest writers introduce little-known treasures of literature that they count among their favorite books. Price: $9.71 (25% off)

A Sorrow Beyond Dreams By Peter Handke Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim Introduction by Jeffrey Eugenides "In A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, the author confronts his mother’s suicide in a compelling story that is like an explanation of a recurrent dream, a dream so vividly expressed it becomes our dream." —Chicago Sun Times Price: $9.71 (25% off)

In the Freud Archives Written and with an afterword by Janet Malcolm "In this brilliant and enjoyable book, a major crisis within one of the most important systems of ideas of our century is presented in the style of a movie vehicle for Jack Nicholson."—Anthony Quinton, The Times Literary Supplement Price: $11.21 (25% off)

A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays By Mary McCarthy Edited and with an introduction by A.O. Scott "Fierce, provocative, and lovely, a collection of small masterpieces, by one of the twentieth century's most dazzling minds." —Katie Roiphe Price: $19.96 (20% off)

Looking Back By Russell Baker In these eleven essays, all originally published in The New York Review of Books, Russell Baker looks back on a group of iconic public figures from his own past. Price: $15.96 (20% off)

The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin (paperback) Edited by Mark Lilla Robert B. Silvers Ronald Dworkin The papers given at the New York Institute for the Humanities conference collected in this volume concentrate on three aspects of Berlin's concept of pluralism. Price: $11.96 (20% off)

Sacagawea's Nickname By Larry McMurtry Once again Larry McMurtry casts a keen and elegaic eye not only on the often harsh truths of the West, but also on the power of western illusions. Price: $15.96 (20% off)

Seduction and Betrayal By Elizabeth Hardwick Introduction by Joan Didion Seduction and Betrayal is a virtuoso performance, a major writer's reckoning with the relations between men and women, women and writing, writing and life. Price: $9.71 (25% off)

Reading and Writing By V.S. Naipaul In this essay of literary autobiography, V. S. Naipaul sifts through memories of his childhood in Trinidad, his university days in England, and his earliest attempts at writing, seeking the experiences of life and reading that shaped his imagination and his growth as a writer. Price: $13.56 (20% off)

The Anatomy of Melancholy By Robert Burton Introduction by William H. Gass One of the major documents of modern European civilization, Robert Burton's astounding compendium, a survey of melancholy in all its myriad forms, has invited nothing but superlatives since its publication in the seventeenth century. Price: $20.96 (25% off)

The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren By Iona and Peter Opie Introduction by Marina Warner The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren is a pathbreaking work of scholarship that is also a splendid and enduring work of literature. Price: $14.21 (25% off)

The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin Edited by Mark Lilla Robert B. Silvers Ronald Dworkin The two days of discussion preserved here demonstrate the continuing vitality and relevance of Isaiah Berlin's thought in today's social and political debates. Price: $18.36 (20% off)

The First and the Last By Isaiah Berlin Tributes by Noel Annan, Stuart Hampshire, Aileen Kelly, Avishai Margalit, and Bernard Williams vividly recall Berlin as conversationalist, music lover, philosopher, and friend. The perfect introduction to Berlin's ideas. Price: $15.96 (20% off)

The First Anthology Edited by Barbara Epstein Rea S. Hederman Robert B. Silvers Published in conjunction with The New York Review's 30th anniversary, this striking compendium features some of the world's most distinguished writing on literature, politics, history, and culture. Price: $22.00 (20% off)