Classics for Pleasure

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008 - Fiction - 341 pages
This is not your father's list of classics. In these delightful essays, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda introduces nearly ninety of the world's most entertaining books. Writing with affection as well as authority, Dirda covers masterpieces of fantasy and science fiction, horror and adventure, as well as epics, history, essay, and children's literature. Organized thematically, these are works that have shaped our imaginations. "Love's Mysteries" moves from Sappho and Arthurian romance to Sören Kierkegaard and Georgette Heyer. In other categories Dirda discusses not only Dracula and Sherlock Holmes but also the Tao Te Ching and Icelandic sagas, Frederick Douglass and Fowler's Modern English Usage. Whether writing about Petronius or Perelman, Dirda makes literature come alive. Classics for Pleasure is a perfect companion for any reading group or lover of books.

 

Contents

III
5
V
8
VI
11
VII
14
VIII
18
IX
22
X
25
XI
32
LV
181
LVI
182
LVII
185
LVIII
188
LIX
192
LX
196
LXI
199
LXII
203

XII
37
XIII
38
XIV
41
XV
44
XVI
48
XVII
52
XVIII
55
XIX
60
XX
65
XXII
67
XXIII
71
XXIV
73
XXV
76
XXVI
88
XXVII
92
XXVIII
95
XXIX
96
XXX
98
XXXI
100
XXXII
102
XXXIII
106
XXXIV
111
XXXV
116
XXXVI
121
XXXVII
122
XXXVIII
125
XXXIX
128
XL
131
XLI
134
XLII
136
XLIV
141
XLV
147
XLVI
148
XLVII
151
XLVIII
153
XLIX
156
L
159
LI
164
LII
168
LIII
170
LIV
174
LXIII
206
LXIV
211
LXV
212
LXVI
214
LXVII
217
LXVIII
220
LXIX
224
LXX
226
LXXI
230
LXXII
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LXXIII
234
LXXIV
237
LXXV
241
LXXVI
244
LXXVII
248
LXXVIII
251
LXXIX
254
LXXX
257
LXXXI
261
LXXXII
264
LXXXIII
269
LXXXIV
270
LXXXV
274
LXXXVI
277
LXXXVII
280
LXXXVIII
283
LXXXIX
287
XC
290
XCI
295
XCIII
297
XCIV
301
XCV
304
XCVI
307
XCVII
311
XCVIII
314
XCIX
317
C
321
CI
322
CII
324
CIII
325
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

MICHAEL DIRDA has been a Fulbright Fellow and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for his literary criticism in the Washington Post Book World. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Bibliographic information