What to read and why
By: Francine Prose
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Harper
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9780062397867
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Books and reading; Criticism; Best books
Other titles: What to read & why
Description: Celebrates the pleasures of reading and pays homage to the works and writers the author admires above all others, from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens to Jennifer Egan.

In an age defined by hyper-connectivity and constant stimulation, Francine Prose makes a compelling case for the solitary act of reading and the great enjoyment it brings. Inspiring and illuminating, What to Read and Why includes selections culled from Prose's previous essays, reviews, and introductions, combined with new, never-before-published pieces that focus on her favorite works of fiction and nonfiction, on works by masters of the short story, and even on books by photographers like Diane Arbus. Prose considers why the works of literary masters such as Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Jane Austen have endured, and shares intriguing insights about modern authors whose words stimulate our minds and enlarge our lives, including Roberto Bolaño, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Jennifer Egan, and Mohsin Hamid. Prose implores us to read Mavis Gallant for her marvelously rich and compact sentences, and her meticulously rendered characters who reveal our flawed and complex human nature; Edward St. Aubyn for his elegance and sophisticated humor; and Mark Strand for his gift for depicting unlikely transformations. Here, too, are original pieces in which Prose explores the craft of writing: "On Clarity" and "What Makes a Short Story." Written with her sharp critical analysis, wit, and enthusiasm, What to Read and Why is a celebration of literature that will give readers a new appreciation for the power and beauty of the written word.
Table of contents: title: Ten things that art can do; title: Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; title: Charles Dickens, Great expectations; title: Honoré de Balzac, Cousin Bette; title: George Eliot, Middlemarch; title: George Gissing, New Grub Street; title: The collected stories of Mavis Gallant; title: Robert Bolaño, 2666; title: Complimentary toilet paper: some thoughts on character and language; title: Michael Jeffrey Lee, George Saunders, John Cheever, Denis Johnson; title: Edward St. Aubyn, the Patrick Melrose novels; title: Paul Bowles, The stories of Paul Bowles and The spider's house; title: Patrick Hamilton, Twenty thousand streets under the sky: a London trilogy; The slaves of solitude; Hangover Square: a story of darkest Earl's court; title: Isaac Babel; title: Lolita, just the dirty parts: on the erotic and pornographic; title: Gitta Sereny, Cries unheard; title: Andrea Canobbio, Three light-years; title: Diane Arbus: Revelations; title: Helen Levitt: Crosstown; title: Mark Strand, Mr. and Mrs. Baby; title: Karl Ove Knausgaard, My struggle; title: Elizabeth Taylor, Complete short stories; title: Louisa May Alcott, Little women; title: Jane Austen; title: Charles Baxter, Believers; title: Debora Levy, Swimming home; title: Alice Munro, Lives of girls and women; title: Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach; title: Rebecca West; title: Mohsin Hamid, Exit West; title: On clarity; title: Reiner Stach, Is that Kafka? 99 finds; title: What makes a short story?; title: In praise of Stanley Elkin.