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Overview

"All first-rate criticism first defines what we are confronting," the late, great jazz critic Whitney Balliett once wrote. By that measure, the essays of Christopher Hitchens are in the first tier. For nearly four decades, Hitchens has been telling us, in pitch-perfect prose, what we confront when we grapple with first principles-the principles of reason and tolerance and skepticism that define and inform the foundations of our civilization-principles that, to endure, must be defended anew by every generation.

"A short list of the greatest living conversationalists in English," said The Economist, "would probably have to include Christopher Hitchens, Sir Patrick Leigh-Fermor, and Sir Tom Stoppard. Great brilliance, fantastic powers of recall, and quick wit are clearly valuable in sustaining conversation at these cosmic levels. Charm may be helpful, too." Hitchens-who staunchly declines all offers of knighthood-hereby invites you to take a seat at a democratic conversation, to be engaged, and to be reasoned with. His knowledge is formidable, an encyclopedic treasure, and yet one has the feeling, reading him, of hearing a person thinking out loud, following the inexorable logic of his thought, wherever it might lead, unafraid to expose fraudulence, denounce injustice, and excoriate hypocrisy. Legions of readers, admirers and detractors alike, have learned to read Hitchens with something approaching awe at his felicity of language, the oxygen in every sentence, the enviable wit and his readiness, even eagerness, to fight a foe or mount the ramparts.

Here, he supplies fresh perceptions of such figures as varied as Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Rebecca West, George Orwell, J.G. Ballard, and Philip Larkin are matched in brilliance by his pungent discussions and intrepid observations, gathered from a lifetime of traveling and reporting from such destinations as Iran, China, and Pakistan.

Hitchens's directness, elegance, lightly carried erudition, critical and psychological insight, humor, and sympathy-applied as they are here to a dazzling variety of subjects-all set a standard for the essayist that has rarely been matched in our time. What emerges from this indispensable volume is an intellectual self-portrait of a writer with an exemplary steadiness of purpose and a love affair with the delights and seductions of the English language, a man anchored in a profound and humane vision of the human longing for reason and justice.

One of the New York Times Book Review's Top 10 Books of 2011

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

A reviewer in the UK's Telegraph described Christopher Hitchens as an "essayist, polemicist, self-styled contrarian, Bush-supporting apostate, smoker, drinker." To Joseph Heller, he is a remarkable commentator: "He jousts with fraudulence of every stripe and always wins." But perhaps Christopher Buckley portrayed him most succinctly: "the greatest living essayist in the English language." All those sides emerge unapologetically in this new collection of essays, Hitchens' first since 2004. Feisty and free-ranging; brilliant skepticism.

Library Journal
The more than 100 previously published commentaries and book reviews—1999 to the present—by this notable columnist, critic, and best-selling author (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything) are serious, humorous, and, above all, thought-provoking. Topics range from the political situation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Tunisia to literary criticism of the works of John Updike, J.K. Rowling, and Stieg Larsson. The essay "Why Women Aren't Funny" contemplates why some women, who have the whole world of men at their feet, put childbirth higher and wit and intelligence lower on their scale of womanhood's enduring qualities. This leads to an essay on diaper-changing stations in men's restrooms. Recommended for shrewd readers and writers who enjoy keeping up with today's lively intellectual arguments, to which Hitchens has contributed so much. [See Prepub Alert, 3/14/11.]—Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
Bill Keller
His range is extraordinary, both in breadth and in altitude…I…find Hitchens one of the most stimulating thinkers and entertaining writers we have, even when—perhaps especially when—he provokes. And while he clearly wants to win you over, you always sense that he is playing in part to the jury of history, which is why so much of what he might, in a rare self-deprecating moment, refer to as hackwork stands up so well to ­anthologizing.
—The New York Times Book Review

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781455502776
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
  • Publication date: 9/1/2011
  • Pages: 816
  • Sales rank: 7,362
  • Product dimensions: 6.30 (w) x 9.18 (h) x 2.34 (d)

Meet the Author

Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, Slate, and The Atlantic, is the author of numerous books, including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and George Orwell. He is also the author of the international bestsellers god Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and Hitch-22: A Memoir.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 18 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 19 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 16, 2011

    Compendium of essays

    This is a collection of essays on a wide variety og subjects. The best sections were on British writers. The militant atheism poking its tiresome head in unexpected places was an irritant.

    Overall, this was a good smorgasboard of a very cogent thinker. Christophet Hitchens will be missed and ,ay he rest in peace.

    1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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