The Pleasures of Reading: In an Ideological Age

“A book that ought to be placed in the hands of any person who shows the slightest interest in serious reading or in hearing a good, practical defense of high culture.” —Wall Street Journal From one of our premier literary scholars, here is a learned and witty introduction to the “sheer vitality of literature and the satisfactions of a close, informed engagement with it” (New York Times). Robert Alter’s illumination of the unique power of reading literature is especially valuable at a time ...