Edmund Wilson was the dominant American literary critic from the 1920s until his death in 1972, but he was also far more than that: a chronicler of his times, a historian of ideas, a probing observer of himself and of the society around him. With this volume and a companion volume devoted to the 30s and 40s--the first two entries in what will be a series devoted to Wilson's work--The Library of America pays tribute to the writer who first conceived the idea of a publishing series dedicated to "bringing out in a complete and compact form the principal American classics."
Literary Essays and Reviews of the 1930s and 40s gives us Wilson at the midpoint of his extraordinary career as critic and scholar, and includes in complete form three of his most significant books. The Triple Thinkers (1938, revised 1948) and The Wound and the Bow (1941) give us Wilson at the height of his powers, in a series of extended literary studies marked by his unique combination of criticism, biographical narrative, and psychological analysis. Here are his dazzling portraits of Pushkin and Flaubert, Dickens and Henry James, Kipling and Casanova, equally sensitive to historical context and his subjects' inner lives; his scintillating reader's guide to the mysteries of Finnegans Wake and his celebrated exploration of the nature of creativity through the figure of Sophocles' wounded hero Philoctetes.
Classics and Commercials (1950) is Wilson's gathering of the best of his reviews from the 1940s, a collection that exemplifies the range and omnivorousness of his interests. In the exact and fluent prose that makes him an unfailing delight to read, Wilson takes on everything from Gogol and Tolstoy to contemporaries like James M. Cain, Katherine Anne Porter, Dorothy Parker, and William Faulkner. Whether registering his qualms about detective novels, parsing the etiquette manuals of Emily Post, or paying tribute to the comic genius of Evelyn Waugh, Wilson turns any critical occasion into the highest kind of pleasure.
The volume is completed with a selection of uncollected reviews from this period, including Wilson's observations on the work of William Maxwell, Saul Bellow, and Anais Nin.
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这本书的文字如同清晨薄雾中展开的古老卷轴,初读时或许会感到一丝迷茫,但随着深入,那种沉淀下来的、历史的重量感便会牢牢抓住你的心神。作者的叙事节奏舒缓而内敛,没有刻意制造的戏剧冲突,一切都像是从日常生活的肌理中自然渗透出来的。我特别欣赏他描摹人物内心世界的细腻笔触,那些细微的犹豫、难以言说的渴望,都被他捕捉得精准而富有诗意。读完后,脑海中久久回荡的不是跌宕起伏的情节,而是一种对时间流逝、对个体命运沉思的悠长余韵。它更像是一面打磨了许久的镜子,映照出的是人性的复杂与多维,迫使读者停下来,审视自身存在的纹理。那种需要耐下心去品味的文字质地,在如今快餐式的阅读风潮中,显得尤为珍贵和稀有。它拒绝浮于表面的喧嚣,而是执着于对存在本质的深挖,每一次重读都会有新的发现,仿佛剥开洋葱的层次,总有更深处的辛辣与甘甜等待着被感知。
评分这本新作的结构简直是一场建筑学的奇迹,作者巧妙地将看似不相干的元素编织成一个紧密且逻辑自洽的整体。我发现自己经常停下来,对着某个段落反复揣摩,试图解析其中蕴含的象征意义和多重指涉。它不是那种一气呵成的畅快阅读体验,而更像是一场需要不断对照地图、不断进行空间转换的智力探险。笔锋时而犀利如手术刀般解剖社会现象,时而又温柔如田园牧歌般描绘转瞬即逝的美好瞬间。尤其在处理那些宏大叙事和微观个体经验的交汇点时,展现出的掌控力令人叹为观止。你不得不佩服作者对语言的绝对驾驭能力,每一个词汇的选择都经过了千锤百炼,绝无冗余。读它需要全神贯注,它不提供简单的答案,而是提供了一系列精妙绝伦的问题,让你的思维在字里行间不断地跳跃、碰撞,最终形成自己独有的理解框架。
评分坦白说,初接触这本书时,我的第一反应是“晦涩”,甚至有些抗拒。那种疏离的、近乎冷峻的叙事口吻,确实对读者的耐受力提出了挑战。但如果你能跨过最初的门槛,你会发现门后是一个极度自洽、逻辑严密的思想迷宫。作者似乎并不在乎是否能取悦大众,他只专注于构建他自己世界里的物理定律和情感法则。这种纯粹的艺术追求,虽然使得阅读过程充满阻力,但也带来了巨大的智识上的满足感。每当成功破解一个复杂句式,或是理解一个隐晦的典故时,那种“顿悟”的愉悦感是其他许多书籍无法比拟的。它要求读者拿出百分之两百的努力去参与到文本的构建中,这无疑是一种对读者智商的挑战,但回报也是丰厚的——那是一种与作者思想进行深度共振的独特体验。
评分这本书读起来,就像是观看一部节奏缓慢但画面极度饱和的欧洲艺术电影。大量的环境描写并非只是背景填充,它们本身就是角色,是推动情绪流动的暗流。作者对光影、质地、气味的捕捉能力,简直是令人发指的精确。我仿佛能闻到书页上那些陈旧的霉味,感受到窗外传来的湿润空气。他笔下的世界,是如此具体、如此可触碰,以至于读完后,现实世界的色彩似乎都变得有些黯淡了。这种强烈的沉浸感,来源于作者对细节的近乎偏执的关注。他似乎相信,真正的“故事”并不存在于情节的起伏,而是隐藏在事物静止的瞬间和环境的呼吸之中。对于那些喜爱氛围营造和感官体验的读者来说,这本书简直是一场盛宴,尽管这场宴会的节奏可能比你习惯的要慢得多。
评分这份作品最令人印象深刻的,是它对于“缺席”的深刻描绘。那些未曾言说的、被刻意留白的部分,其重量感甚至超过了那些被详尽阐述的内容。作者的笔法像极了高明的留白画家,他知道在哪里停止挥洒墨迹,从而将想象的空间完全交给读者。这种“不完全告知”的手法,极大地激发了我的联想和推测欲望。我花了大量时间去思考人物关系中那些微妙的权力转移和情感的微妙倾斜,而这些,在文本中都只是轻描淡写的一笔。它迫使你从一个被动的接受者,转变为一个积极的“侦探”,去搜寻散落在字里行间的蛛丝马迹。这种需要自我完成的阅读体验,比被喂养式的叙事要来得刺激和令人回味无穷。
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