A Defense of Ardor: Essays [Paperback]

Adam Zagajewski (Author), Clare Cavanagh (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374529884 | ISBN-13: 978-0374529888 | Publication Date: September 29, 2005 | Edition: 1st

Ardor, inspiration, the soul, the sublime: Such terms have long since fallen from favor among critics and artists alike. In his new collection of essays, Adam Zagajewski continues his efforts to reclaim for art not just the terms but the scanted spiritual dimension of modern human existence that they stake out.

Bringing gravity and grace to his meditations on art, society, and history, Zagajewski wears his erudition lightly, with a disarming blend of modesty and humor. His topics range from autobiography (his first visit to a post-Soviet Lvov after childhood exile; his illicit readings of Nietzsche in Communist Poland); to considerations of artist friends past and present (Zbigniew Herbert, Czeslaw Milosz); to intellectual and psychological portraits of cities he has known, east and west; to a dazzling thumbnail sketch of postwar Polish poetry.

Zagajewski gives an account of the place of art in the modern age that distinguishes his self-proclaimed liberal vision from the “right-wing radicalism” of such modernist precursors as Eliot or Yeats. The same mixture of ardor and compassion that marks Zagajewski’s distinctive contribution to modern poetry runs throughout this eloquent, engaging collection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 14 essays that make up poet Zagajewski’s "defense" are an engagingly warm and witty blend of literary comment and memoir, passionate about aesthetic matters but refreshingly free of personal rancor. Zagajewski was born in Poland at the end of WWII; his career is inexorably bound up with the fate of his homeland, and his essays are full of the critical but fierce patriotism common to the country often wryly called "God’s playground." Zagajewski’s combination of the personal, literary and political is canny and well judged, as in the excellent "Nietzsche in Krakow," which begins as partly nostalgic reminiscence, tracing the author’s furtive discovery, as an adolescent living under communism, of the officially proscribed "mustachioed philosopher" and his delight in "the scorn with which this philologist and philosopher treated the state." But this remembrance of youthful enthusiasm underlies a more skeptical view, in which Nietzsche’s disdain for objective truth and worship of irrationality are seen to underlie not only fascism but, through Lenin, the state socialism of postwar Poland. Though the essays are written in a casually intimate style, such names as Mann and Musil are invoked without undue strain. In other essays, the careers of such friends and luminaries as Czeslaw Milosz and Zbigniew Herbert are contextualized with both intelligence and affection, as are cities in which Zagajewski has lived, written and taught.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Renowned Polish poet Zagajewski is also a mettlesome essayist, noting wryly in his fourth impressive collection that so many poets feel the need to write in "defense of poetry," such works have become "a separate literary genre," one he can't help but contribute to. But he takes an unusually vivifying approach by celebrating ardor, an unabashed appreciation for beauty that is much maligned in our time of knee-jerk irony, worship of perversity, and literary tepidness. This leads to a rewarding exegesis of Plato's concept of metaxu, our being "in between" the tangible earth and transcendence, and a discerning discussion of how poetry provides a crucial link between the quotidian and the ecstatic. Zagajewski develops this thesis further in the equally powerful "The Shabby and the Sublime," and in supple readings of his mentors Czelaw Milosz and Zbigniew Herbert. Peppery and cosmopolitan, Zagajewski also recounts various journeys, considers fascism's impact on literature, rails against "small poetry," and defends humor as an essential poetic element. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (September 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374529884
• ISBN-13: 978-0374529888
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #670,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Case for Poetry and the Sublime, April 23, 2009

By 

Corey - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Defense of Ardor: Essays (Paperback)

Worth it for the essay "The Shabby and Sublime" alone, Zagajewski's prose is as lucid and insightful as his poetry. These essays are philosophical without being academic, complex without being obscure. Even if you've read very little contemporary poetry, Zagjewski's essays are illuminating and offer a defense of what's worth defending in poetry: an encounter with the sublime.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poets, Poetry and Poland, March 5, 2010

By 

Bryan Byrd (Earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Defense of Ardor: Essays (Hardcover)

Adam Zagajewski's collection begins with the eloquent defense expressed in the book's title essay, and though the other pieces never quite rise to the same level, each is worthwhile in its own way. Actually, the first two essays seem to me to be part and parcel with one another. One defends passion, the other argues against modernity's 'low style' stripped down narratives. These two discussions alone were worth the price of the book, which I found where you find a great deal of quality writing these days - remaindered to the bargain bin. (But that's another argument for another day.)

The other essays in the book seem loosely grouped around two themes - either eulogistic tributes to his fellow Polish poets, or nomadically entertaining reminiscences of a poet's life. I had first been interested in the book because I thought it dealt more with cultural criticism - no matter, Mr. Zagajewski's style is friendly and informal, and, as both an ambassador from Poland and a man who experienced life in the Eastern Bloc, his point of view is both novel and illuminating. The poets he celebrates may be obscure to me, and poetry itself is not where my principle interest lies, but the author's infectious manner and commentary make this a gratifying collection.

My fiancée often asks me why I read books that are full of references to people and other writings with which I'm unfamiliar, and I never know how to reply because I think the answer is embedded in the question. Nevertheless, readers who may be interested in this particular work should be aware that 'A Defense of Ardor', along with a short critique of global cultural mores, primarily deals with Polish poets and poetry (Zbigniew Herbert, Czeslaw Milosz, Jozef Czapski), and Mr. Zagajewski's own memoirs of the craft. Where he excels is in lifting these topics from their provincial setting and teasing out their universal appeal. Ardor is lucky to have such a defender.