At the turn of the eighteenth century, a writer--a Jew--enters an English country manor, where he has been invited to read through the night to his host until the gentleman falls asleep. What unfolds then are seemingly unconnected stories covering a vast array of topics--from incest to madness to a poetic competition in the court of George III. And what emerges by the end is a breathtaking tapestry in which past and present, imagination and truth, are intricately woven together into one remarkable whole.

Is the Bible one book or a collection of writings? If it is a book, does it stand as a coherent piece of literature? Building on the recently renewed interest in biblical narrative associated with Erich Auerbach, Northrop Frye, and Robert Alter, Gabriel Josipovici here sets out to answer these and other equally fascinating questions. Developing his argument through close textual analysis, Josipovici draws on his deep knowledge and appreciation of medieval and modern art and literature and on his personal understanding of the possibilities of narrative. His beautifully written book not only...

What are the relations between a man's life and his art? What is the place of modern art, with its underlying principles of fragmentation, dislocation and parody in the culture and education of today? What are the limits of human expression and of the expressivity of voice and body? These are some of the questions raised by Gabriel Josipovici in this collections of essays, now in its second edition. To the first edition, which won the South East Arts Literature Prize for 1978, the author has added a new preface, explaining the continuing relevance of the argument of the book to a new...

Stephen Medcalf (1937-2006) was an essayist, in the best traditional sense of that calling: a writer not of books but of substantial and justly celebrated essays, widely read in the Times Literary Supplement and elsewhere. Medcalf's abiding question to the world was the Psalmist's: 'What is man that thou art mindful of him?' His was a Blakean sense of Englishness, far from the chocolate-box painting or the television adaptation, and for him the strongest writers were those keenly aware of their roots in the classical, Anglo-Saxon or Celtic past. By gathering together Medcalf's most important...

This novel by the French writer Gabriel Josipovici is an exploration into the power of memory and imagination, also raising the question of how far it is possible for non-Jews to understand Jews. Josipovici's other works include "Text and Voice" and "Steps: selected fiction and drama".

In this brilliant book, a preeminent literary thinker muses over the central question of how we can feel at home in the world, given that the world is independent of and indifferent to our wishes. Drawing on books and films, cultural history and his own experiences, Gabriel Josipovici argues that it is possible to feel comfortable in the world and in our relationships with others only if we value touch over sight, if we respect distance but also work to overcome it. Josipovici moves from a Charlie Chaplin film to passages from Proust, from the world of sport to the world of addiction, from...