Partial Payments, Essays on Writer's and Their Lives [Paperback]

Joseph Epstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1991

This collection of essays by the author of "Plausible Prejudices" and "Once More Around the Block" focuses on the writers to whom Joseph Epstein feels indebted. The range extends historically from Matthew Arnold to Tom Wolfe, and includes Philip Larkin, Barbara Pym and V.S.Naipaul.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 19 essays first published in Commentary , Encounter , the New Criterion and the Times Literary Supplement , Epstein "repays" writers to whom he feels indebted as a reader, reassessing their work and placing it in the rich context of their lives. Learned, lucid and fluent the author certainly is, offering carefully considered opinions on Philip Larkin, Barbara Pym, Chekhov and E. B. White. But his engaging voice and mellifluous prose do not conceal or compensate for Epstein's often mean-spirited, reactionary stance. His potshots at leftists, women and gays detract from the authority of some judgments (Marxist critics "festoon their cliches" on Dreiser's novels; Dorothy Parker is but a "hard little number"; E. M. Forster's novels are rendered "obsolete" and "empty" by the "personal antipathies" of a "homosexual utopian"). His vastly negative re-examination of Forster, made in light of the novelist's homosexuality, is patronizing and unwarranted. The chief problem is not that Epstein grinds an ax, but that he doesn't acknowledge the foundations of his polemics, forging ahead with impassioned complacence.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The literary essay is a rare thing in these days of quotable blurbs and an infatuation with inaccessible criticism. Epstein, however, provides readers with a collection of perceptive, sensitive essays on subjects ranging from Matthew Arnold to S.J. Perelman, from E.M. Forster to Tom Wolfe. He also considers the labyrinthine works of Borges and the art of Henry James's fiction. That numerous scholarly works are already available on Epstein's various subjects does nothing to diminish the value of his essays. Highly recommended for all literature collections, public or academic; a pleasure to read.John Budd, Graduate Lib. Sch., Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 430 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (March 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393307166
• ISBN-13: 978-0393307160
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,036,952 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOSEPH EPSTEIN is the author of the best-selling Snobbery and of Friendship, as well as the short story collections The Goldin Boys and Fabulous Small Jews, among other books, and was formerly editor of the American Scholar. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful collection of literary essays, August 7, 2000

By 

Robert James (Culver City, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Partial Payments, Essays on Writer's and Their Lives (Paperback)

Joseph Epstein's collection of essays on various literary figures carries with it two of my favorite virtues: readability and inclusiveness. A book that is readable (or if difficult, rewards the effort, like Faulkner's novels) and that covers all the bases is a joy to find, and "Partial Payments" fits that category nicely. Epstein's basic method is this: read all of a writer's works, a healthy piece of the biographical writings, and then cogitate upon the subject. Each one of Epstein's essays effectively provides an introduction to the writer under scrutiny; each one carries with it a sense of worth and incisive definition of the writer's gifts. Epstein takes for the most part writers who have fallen out of the canon (like H.L. Mencken), or who are no longer read outside of literary history classes (like Theodore Dreiser), or who need fresh views (like E.B. White), and strikes off a portrait in words. Every single one of his essays is worth reading, and most of them have sent me to the local library or Amazon to buy one of the recommended texts. In short, a guidebook to a literary cornucopia of the unjustly forgotten or neglected.