Joseph Epstein Bücher

Der Neid ist in der Reihe der sieben Todsünden die unangenehmste und heimlichste. Namenlose Bosheit, kaltblütige, aber heimliche Feindseligkeit, ohnmächtiges Begehren, verborgener Groll und Gehässigkeit, all das beschreibt dieses Laster. Der Neider ist kleingeistig und weiß darum. Unerträglich scheint ihm des Anderen Wohl, Ruhm und Besitz. Er sähe ihn gern am Boden zerstört und ist allein zur Schadenfreude fähig. Joseph Epstein begibt sich in seinem Essay in den Sumpf dieses vollkommen unlustigen Gefühls. Er erzählt von den neiderfüllten Geschichten der Bibel, wägt die Definitionen der Philosophie gegeneinander ab und durchquert Psychoanalyse und Marxismus. Nichts fällt dem Autor zur Verteidigung dieses niedrigen und destruktiven Gefühls ein – sein Text aber ist auf beneidenswerte Weise humorvoll, kurzweilig und informativ!

Once More Around The Familiar Essays by Epstein, Joseph

From America's call for a free press to its embrace of the capitalist system, Democracy in America--first published in 1835--enlightens, entertains, and endures as a brilliant study of our national government and character. Philosopher John Stuart Mill called it "among the most remarkable productions of our time." Woodrow Wilson wrote that de Tocqueville's ability to illuminate the actual workings of American democracy was "possibly without rival." For today's readers, de Tocqueville's concern about the effect of majority rule on the rights of individuals remains deeply meaningful. His shrewd observations about the "almost royal prerogatives" of the president and the need for virtue in elected officials are particularly prophetic. His profound insights into the great rewards and responsibilities of democratic government are words every American needs to read, contemplate, and remember. From America's call for a free press to its embrace of the capitalist system Democracy in America enlightens, entertains, and endures as a brilliant study of our national government and character. De Toqueville's concern about the effect of majority rule on the rights of individuals remains deeply meaningful. His insights into the great rewards and responsibilities of democratic government are words every American needs to read, contemplate, and remember.

Essays by Jean Ervin, Jacob Cohen, Ward Just, Floyd Skloot, Gerald Early, James Salter, Philip Weiss, Cynthia Ozick, Diane Johnson, Joseph Brodsky, Marcia Aldrich, Paul R. McHugh, Anthony Burgess, Daniel M. Harris, Robert Sherrill, Shaun O'Connell, Thomas C. Palmer, Lawrence Otis Graham, Scott Russell Sanders, and Barbara Grizzuti Harrison.

Who is the greatest living essayist writing in English? Joseph Epstein would surely be at the top of anybody's list. Epstein is penetrating. He is witty. He has a magic touch with words, that hard to define but immediately recognizable quality called style. Above all, he is impossible to put down.Joseph Epstein's A Collection of Essays, Reviews, Bits is the fifth such volume from Axios Press and contains 58 essays. Subjects range from domestic life to current social trends to an appraisal of “contemporary nuttiness.” It follows the much-acclaimed Essays in Biography, 2012; A Literary Education and Other Essays, 2014; Wind Shorter Essays, 2016; and The Ideal of Essays, 2018. After reading Epstein, we see life with a fresh eye. We also see ourselves a little more clearly. This is what Plutarch life teaching by example, but with a wry smile and such a sure hand that we hardly notice the instruction. It is just pure pleasure.

Joseph Epstein takes on that most enchanting (and, alas, increasingly rare) of human gifts, charm. "Almost everyone will recognize when he or she is in the presence of charm," he writes. "Charm is magic of a kind; it casts a spell. In the presence of charm the world seems lighter and lovelier. A charming person can cause you to forget your problems, at least temporarily, to hold the world's dreariness at bay. Charm is a reminder that the world is filled with jolly prospects and delightful possibilities. Watching Fred Astaire dance, or listening to Blossom Dearie sing, or reading the poems of C.P. Cavafy, or merely looking at Rita Hayworth or Ava Gardner, one recalls that the world can be a pretty damn fine place."

"This is a book about the importance of fiction not alone as an aesthetic phenomenon but as a means of knowledge and discovery. The book argues that superior fiction is able to rise to levels of understanding-of worldly events, of human relationships, of human nature itself-unavailable to other disciplines or forms of learning. It goes on to argue that especially in our day, a time when so many various ideas are afloat, fiction is of the greatest significance. To make its argument the book considers many of the great novels of the western world; it also sets out the importance of fiction to many of the key intellectuals of the past century who were not themselves novelists or even literary men or women. It also discusses the fate of fiction in the current day"--

Tento výbor z esejů Josepha Epsteina – představující ovšem jen zlomek z jeho rozsáhlé tvorby – je veden snahou ukázat šíři a pestrost autorových zájmů. Čtenář v něm nalezne tři základní tematické okruhy. První se vytvářel v závislosti na Epsteinově povolání univerzitního učitele literatury. Jeho znalosti i přehled zejména americké literární produkce staršího i novějšího data jsou famózní. Epstein nám ukazuje, do jaké hloubky lze číst a přemýšlet o přečteném. Druhý je utvořen z jeho celoživotní snahy pochopit řeckou a římskou literární a kulturní tradici včetně latiny. To dokládají nejen rozbory děl autorů jako Hérodotos a Tacitus, ale i Epsteinova touha o proniknutí do tajů latinského jazyka. Třetí okruh je založen na jeho zájmu o věci veřejné. Epstein je „ze staré školy“ a nehodlá se přizpůsobovat módním trendům, například politické korektnosti a cancel kultuře. Je však zapotřebí dodat, že jeho politická nekorektnost je chytrá, kultivovaná a vtipná. Vtip ostatně netvoří v Epsteinově díle nějaký ornament, je bytostnou součástí jeho uvažování i psaní. Tento humor svou kreativitou připomene českému čtenáři jiného brilantního anglicky píšícího esejisty – G. K. Chestertona.