Classics for Pleasure [Paperback]

This is not your father’s list of classics. In these delightful essays, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda introduces nearly ninety of the world’s most entertaining books.

 

Writing with affection as well as authority, Dirda covers masterpieces of fantasy and science fiction, horror and adventure, as well as epics, history, essay, and children’s literature. Organized thematically, these are works that have shaped our imaginations. Love’s Mysteries moves from Sappho and Arthurian romance to Sören Kierkegaard and Georgette Heyer. In other categories Dirda discusses not onlyDraculaand Sherlock Holmes but also theTao Te Chingand Icelandic sagas, Frederick Douglass andFowler’s Modern English Usage. Whether writing about Petronius or Perelman, Dirda makes literature come alive.Classics for Pleasureis a perfect companion for any reading group or lover of books.