In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories [Paperback]

Delmore Schwartz (Author), James Atlas (Editor), Irving Howe (Designer)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Nostalgic odes to the city are everywhere, but the best thing ever written on the subject is [this book]. -- Darren Reidy, The Village Voice, 31 December 2003

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (April 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811206807
• ISBN-13: 978-0811206808
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #529,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars european son, December 7, 1999

By 

Neil Roseman (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories (Paperback)

Delmore Schwartz has unfortunately been forgotten by most people today, and that is a great shame. (An example of this is that Schwartz's student John Berryman has his own entry in the online edition of Encarta; Delmore does not.) I first came into contact with his work in 9th grade, when a teacher suggested I read the Schwartz poem, "The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me" -- one of his masterpieces, collected in "Summer Knowledge." Later, around the time I read this book,there was a brief surge in Delmore interest with the publication of Jame Atlas' biography of Schwartz and Saul Bellow's "Humboldts Gift", the title character being based on Delmore. Fortunately, this led to reprinting of much of his work. Sadly, it didn't lead to continued general interest.

The title story alone is reason enough to buy "In Dreams..." The brilliant device of having the main character watching a movie of his parents courtship, is was way ahead of its time. The end of the story will linger in your mind. It's heartbreaking and scary and funny.

Schwartz's work deserves a wider audience. I promise you will not be dissapointed if you take the time to read him. The only poet I know who has both a Berryman "Dream Song" and a Lou Reed song dedicated to him can't be too bad, can he?

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Your "Responsibility" to Find Great Literature Ends Here, July 10, 2000

By 

Dale W. Boyer (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories (Paperback)

Five of the stories here are flat-out masterpieces ("In Dreams;" "The World is a Wedding;" "New Year's Eve;" "The Commencement Address;" and "The Track Meet"), while the other 3 are extremely well done, if not as wholly satisfying. This collection should be required reading in every contemporary lit. class. It's got everything: all the themes of struggle, frustration and defeat, responsibility, ambition, all the thoughts that men have thought in every age, and captures its era so perfectly and completely I am in awe. Even though the stories are, in some ways similar (especially "In Dreams," "The Commencement Address," and "The Track Meet"), they are utterly original, beautiful, hallucinatory, profound, funny and heartbreaking. Schwartz -- that great voice speaking out against the crowd -- deserves to be heard at last.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible story, May 24, 2005

By 

Mary Palmer (Ocean County, New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In dreams begin responsibilities and other stories (Hardcover)

I've never had this experience before, or since. It is autumn of 1964. I am a college freshman, sitting on my bed reading the story "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities." My roommate and a few other dorm mates walk into the room and call my name, but I don't hear them, so lost am I in the story. Finally, someone nudges my arm. I look up--and the story, which had been unrolling before my eyes, is gone! I'm back in my college dorm room, no longer in the movie theater in the story. I had not even been aware that I was reading--I was IN the story, I was there, experiencing it, not just reading it--and for a few moments, I didn't know what had happened or where I was. Repeated readings never quite duplicated that first experience, but the story remains very powerful, very moving, very involving.