Mostly Grave Thoughts: On Mortality and Other Matters

ISBN-13: 9781412849821 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 178 str.

Eugene Goodheart

Opis

In this new collection, Eugene Goodheart, scholar of English literature, essayist, and public intellectual, reveals himself in a way that will interest readers already familiar with his expansive body of work as well as those new to his writing.Rising above the particular, the essays focus on themes of universal importance. The opening essay, "Whistling in the Dark," is a meditation on the gravest of subjects: aging and mortality. The chapters that follow are a series of reflections on teaching, retirement, illness, marriage, fatherhood, friendship, regret, indignation, sports, and writing--activities that make up a life. The book wrestles with the question of what constitutes the reality of the self in the present when many writers view the self as an illusion.Each essay alludes to writers of the past and present who have addressed the question of what constitutes the self. Looming largest is Montaigne, the inventor of the modern personal essay. This book focuses on universally important subjects, including an individual's place in a community, family, fatherhood, growing older, being Jewish, and friendship. Written in a vividly accessible manner, this book reaches out to a general audience.

Spis treści

Introduction
1 Whistling in the Dark
2 Untethered
3 The Thin Man
4 Suddenly One Summer
5 Happily Ever After
6 Father of the Man
7 Fast Friends
8 Regrets Only
9 The Fiery Lieutenant
10 Sticks and Stones
11 Sports Allegory
Acknowledgments

O autorze

Eugene Goodheart