Description
The first edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations was described as 'a splendid book', 'a feast that combines comprehensiveness with clarity of presentation'. This new expanded edition further illuminates the world of the writer from classical literature to crime fiction and from the quill to the PC. Zadie Smith and Henry James contribute views on Ending, Alice Munro speculates on suitable Illustrations for modern novels ('barbed wire and blotches?'), and Michael Frayn and Seamus Heaney find the work of Translation can be 'like driving a Rolls-Royce' or 'scriptorium-slow'. New insights on authors include Ben Okri on Cervantes, Robertson Davies on Tennyson, and Douglas Adams on P.G. Wodehouse.
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Here is a delightful and instructive compendium of the most memorable utterances of the world's most quotable writers. The Oxford Book of Literary Quotations covers all aspects of the literary life, from careful assessments of the relative value of literature ("The world must be all fucked upwhen men travel first class and literature goes as freight," Gabriel Garcia Marquez) to the modest wish for an attentive audience ("The demand that I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole LIFE to reading my works," James Joyce) to appreciative remarks about their fellow writers("Gertrude Stein and me are just like brothers," Ernest Hemingway), to reflections on the thrill of publishing ("Being published by the Oxford University Press is rather like being married to a duchess: the honour is almost greater than the pleasure," G.M. Young), and much, much more. Celebrating over 3,000 years of writing, the dictionary's 4,000 quotations are arranged thematically, allowing the reader to dip easily into a chosen topic. Within each topic, the entries are arranged chronologically by author. So, for the section of Earning a Living, we begin with Horace,writing in the first century B.C. and end with A. S. Byatt, writing in 1995. Full keyword and author indexes ensure that a favorite quotation or author can be located quickly. From Drink and Drugs to Writer's Block, from Love to Literary Theory, from Admiration and Praise to Rivalry and Rejection,The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations brings us the wittiest, most profound, most surprising, and most memorable words of the world's greatest writers on all aspects of their lives and work.
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