A Jacques Barzun Reader: Selections from His Works

A Jacques Barzun Reader: Selections from His Works

Throughout his career Jacques Barzun, author of more than thirty books, including most recently the New York Times bestseller From Dawn to Decadence , has always been known as a witty and graceful essayist, one who combines a depth of knowledge and a rare facility with words. In A Jacques Barzun Reader , Michael Murray has carefully selected from Barzun's oeuvre eighty of the most inventive, accomplished, and insightful essays, now available for the first time in one magisterial volume. The list of subjects covered has an amazing range: history, philosophy, literature, education, music -- and more. Here is Barzun's classic examination of baseball in American life, Lincoln as a literary artist, and the pleasures of reading crime fiction. Among the many diverse figures whom Barzun reexamines -- leading to fresh portraits -- are Shaw, Berlioz, Swift, both Henry and William James, Dorothy Sayers, Chapman, Agate, and Diderot. Jacques Barzun draws the reader into his enthusiasms with an infectious style and keen insights. A Jacques Barzun Reader is a feast for any reader. Cultural critic Barzun has in his tenth decade maintained his ability to write best-sellers, most recently, From Dawn to Decadence (2000). His ability to express his erudition without condescension, which may account for his prolonged popularity, runs through this retrospective drawn from his huge archive of compositions. Rhetorical clarity animates each of the several dozen selections, for Barzun practices what he has preached for a lifetime: writing concretely, rather than abstractly; writing to convince, not to overwhelm. Still another clue to Barzun's connectedness with an audience resides in his expositions on critics of the past, especially exponents of romanticism such as William Hazlitt. Without the suffocation of academic argot, Barzun notes, Hazlitt's essays on Shakespeare's characters, for example, gave pleasure with illumination. And that trait shines through Barzun's anthology, which covers a range of artists, writers, and subjects: composer Hector Berlioz, forgotten political commentator Walter Bagehot, one Thomas Beddoes, M.D., and more, all of which consistently provokes and delights. A positive addition to the Barzun books every library stocks. Gilbert Taylor Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “Barzun has the indispensable skill all great critics possess, which is the ability to step back and say something new. And as this book reminds us, he has been doing that for a long, long time.” - Denver Post “A treat. Barzun…is an irresistible appreciator.” - Boston Globe Throughout his career Jacques Barzun, author of more than thirty books, including most recently the New York Times bestseller From Dawn to Decadence , has always been known as a witty and graceful essayist, one who combines a depth of knowledge and a rare facility with words. In A Jacques Barzun Reader , Michael Murray has carefully selected from Barzun's oeuvre eighty of the most inventive, accomplished, and insightful essays, now available for the first time in one magisterial volume. The list of subjects covered has an amazing range: history, philosophy, literature, education, music -- and more. Here is Barzun's classic examination of baseball in American life, Lincoln as a literary artist, and the pleasures of reading crime fiction. Among the many diverse figures whom Barzun reexamines -- leading to fresh portraits -- are Shaw, Berlioz, Swift, both Henry and William James, Dorothy Sayers, Chapman, Agate, and Diderot. Jacques Barzun draws the reader into his enthusiasms with an infectious style and keen insights. A Jacques Barzun Reader is a feast for any reader. Born in France in 1907, Jacques Barzun came to the United States in 1920. After graduating from Columbia College, he joined the faculty of the university, becoming Seth Low Professor of History and, for a decade, Dean of Faculties and Provost. The author of some thirty books, including the New York Times bestseller From Dawn to Decadence, he received the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he was twice president. He lived in San Antonio, Texas, before passing away at age 104.