Borrow it
Coverart for item
The Resource Waiting for the barbarians : essays from the classics to pop culture, by Daniel Mendelsohn

Waiting for the barbarians : essays from the classics to pop culture, by Daniel Mendelsohn

Creator
Summary
Over the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohn's reviews for "The New York Review of Books," "The New Yorker," and "The New York Times Book Review" have earned him a reputation as "one of the greatest critics of our time" ("Poets & Writers"). In "Waiting for the Barbarians," he brings together twenty-four of his recent essays--each one glinting with "verve and sparkle," "acumen and passion"--A wide range of subjects, from "Avatar" to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with the "Titanic" to Susan Sontag's "Journals." Trained as a classicist, author of two internationally best-selling memoirs, Mendelsohn moves easily from penetrating considerations of the ways in which the classics continue to make themselves felt in contemporary life and letters (Greek myth in the "Spider-Man" musical, Anne Carson's translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectacles--none more explosively controversial than his dissection of "Mad Men." Also gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littell's Holocaust blockbuster "The Kindly Ones" to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, "Private Lives," prefaced by Mendelsohn's"New Yorker" essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, Noel Coward, and Jonathan Franzen. "Waiting for the Barbarians" once again demonstrates that Mendelsohn's "sweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth."
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiv, 423 pages
Note
"The New York review collection."
Contents
  • Spider-man)
  • The dream director
  • (Aleksandr Sokurov's
  • The sun)
  • The mad men account (Mad men)
  • Unsinkable (why we can't let go of the Titanic)
  • Classica. Battle lines
  • (Stephen Mitchell's
  • Iliad)
  • In search of Sappho
  • Spectacles. The wizard
  • (Anne Carson's
  • If not, winter)
  • Arms and the man (the Landmark Herodotus)
  • The strange music of Horace
  • (J.D. McClatchy's
  • Horace, the odes)
  • Oscar Wilde, classics scholar
  • Epic endeavors (three novels on the classics)
  • Creative writing. After Waterloo
  • (Stendhal's
  • (James Cameron's
  • Charterhouse of Parma)
  • Heroine addict (the novels of
  • Theodor Fontane)
  • Rebel rebel (the poems of
  • Arthur Rimbaud)
  • The Spanish tragedy
  • (Antonio Muڵnoz Molina's‪‪
  • Sepharad)
  • In gay and crumbling England
  • (Alan Hollinghurst's
  • Avatar)
  • The stranger's child)
  • Transgression
  • (Jonathan Littell's
  • The kindly ones)
  • Private lives. But enough about me (the memoir craze)
  • His design for living
  • (Noںel Coward's‪‪
  • Letters)
  • On the town
  • (Leo Lerman's
  • Truth force at the Met
  • diaries)
  • Zoned out
  • (Jonathan Franzen's
  • The discomfort zone)
  • Boys will be boys
  • (Edmund White's
  • City boy)
  • The collector
  • (Susan Sontag's
  • Reborn)
  • (Philip Glass's
  • Satyagraha)
  • Why she fell
  • (Julie Taymor's
Isbn
9781590176078
Instance
Label
Waiting for the barbarians : essays from the classics to pop culture
Title
Waiting for the barbarians
Title remainder
essays from the classics to pop culture
Statement of responsibility
by Daniel Mendelsohn
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
Over the past decade and a half, Daniel Mendelsohn's reviews for "The New York Review of Books," "The New Yorker," and "The New York Times Book Review" have earned him a reputation as "one of the greatest critics of our time" ("Poets & Writers"). In "Waiting for the Barbarians," he brings together twenty-four of his recent essays--each one glinting with "verve and sparkle," "acumen and passion"--A wide range of subjects, from "Avatar" to the poems of Arthur Rimbaud, from our inexhaustible fascination with the "Titanic" to Susan Sontag's "Journals." Trained as a classicist, author of two internationally best-selling memoirs, Mendelsohn moves easily from penetrating considerations of the ways in which the classics continue to make themselves felt in contemporary life and letters (Greek myth in the "Spider-Man" musical, Anne Carson's translations of Sappho) to trenchant takes on pop spectacles--none more explosively controversial than his dissection of "Mad Men." Also gathered here are essays devoted to the art of fiction, from Jonathan Littell's Holocaust blockbuster "The Kindly Ones" to forgotten gems like the novels of Theodor Fontane. In a final section, "Private Lives," prefaced by Mendelsohn's"New Yorker" essay on fake memoirs, he considers the lives and work of writers as disparate as Leo Lerman, Noel Coward, and Jonathan Franzen. "Waiting for the Barbarians" once again demonstrates that Mendelsohn's "sweep as a cultural critic is as impressive as his depth."
Member of
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1960-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Mendelsohn, Daniel Adam
Dewey number
801/.95
Index
no index present
LC call number
PN81
LC item number
.M514 2012
Literary form
non fiction
Series statement
The New York Review collection
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Canon (Literature)
  • Literature
  • Popular culture
  • Canon (Literature)
  • Literature
  • Popular culture
Label
Waiting for the barbarians : essays from the classics to pop culture, by Daniel Mendelsohn
Instantiates
Publication
Note
"The New York review collection."
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Spider-man)
  • The dream director
  • (Aleksandr Sokurov's
  • The sun)
  • The mad men account (Mad men)
  • Unsinkable (why we can't let go of the Titanic)
  • Classica. Battle lines
  • (Stephen Mitchell's
  • Iliad)
  • In search of Sappho
  • Spectacles. The wizard
  • (Anne Carson's
  • If not, winter)
  • Arms and the man (the Landmark Herodotus)
  • The strange music of Horace
  • (J.D. McClatchy's
  • Horace, the odes)
  • Oscar Wilde, classics scholar
  • Epic endeavors (three novels on the classics)
  • Creative writing. After Waterloo
  • (Stendhal's
  • (James Cameron's
  • Charterhouse of Parma)
  • Heroine addict (the novels of
  • Theodor Fontane)
  • Rebel rebel (the poems of
  • Arthur Rimbaud)
  • The Spanish tragedy
  • (Antonio Muڵnoz Molina's‪‪
  • Sepharad)
  • In gay and crumbling England
  • (Alan Hollinghurst's
  • Avatar)
  • The stranger's child)
  • Transgression
  • (Jonathan Littell's
  • The kindly ones)
  • Private lives. But enough about me (the memoir craze)
  • His design for living
  • (Noںel Coward's‪‪
  • Letters)
  • On the town
  • (Leo Lerman's
  • Truth force at the Met
  • diaries)
  • Zoned out
  • (Jonathan Franzen's
  • The discomfort zone)
  • Boys will be boys
  • (Edmund White's
  • City boy)
  • The collector
  • (Susan Sontag's
  • Reborn)
  • (Philip Glass's
  • Satyagraha)
  • Why she fell
  • (Julie Taymor's
Control code
ocn769425349
Dimensions
22 cm.
Extent
xiv, 423 pages
Isbn
9781590176078
Lccn
2012012240
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Label
Waiting for the barbarians : essays from the classics to pop culture, by Daniel Mendelsohn
Publication
Note
"The New York review collection."
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Spider-man)
  • The dream director
  • (Aleksandr Sokurov's
  • The sun)
  • The mad men account (Mad men)
  • Unsinkable (why we can't let go of the Titanic)
  • Classica. Battle lines
  • (Stephen Mitchell's
  • Iliad)
  • In search of Sappho
  • Spectacles. The wizard
  • (Anne Carson's
  • If not, winter)
  • Arms and the man (the Landmark Herodotus)
  • The strange music of Horace
  • (J.D. McClatchy's
  • Horace, the odes)
  • Oscar Wilde, classics scholar
  • Epic endeavors (three novels on the classics)
  • Creative writing. After Waterloo
  • (Stendhal's
  • (James Cameron's
  • Charterhouse of Parma)
  • Heroine addict (the novels of
  • Theodor Fontane)
  • Rebel rebel (the poems of
  • Arthur Rimbaud)
  • The Spanish tragedy
  • (Antonio Muڵnoz Molina's‪‪
  • Sepharad)
  • In gay and crumbling England
  • (Alan Hollinghurst's
  • Avatar)
  • The stranger's child)
  • Transgression
  • (Jonathan Littell's
  • The kindly ones)
  • Private lives. But enough about me (the memoir craze)
  • His design for living
  • (Noںel Coward's‪‪
  • Letters)
  • On the town
  • (Leo Lerman's
  • Truth force at the Met
  • diaries)
  • Zoned out
  • (Jonathan Franzen's
  • The discomfort zone)
  • Boys will be boys
  • (Edmund White's
  • City boy)
  • The collector
  • (Susan Sontag's
  • Reborn)
  • (Philip Glass's
  • Satyagraha)
  • Why she fell
  • (Julie Taymor's
Control code
ocn769425349
Dimensions
22 cm.
Extent
xiv, 423 pages
Isbn
9781590176078
Lccn
2012012240
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n

Subject

Genre

Member of

Library Locations

    • Georgetown LibraryBorrow it
      3260 R St. NW, Washington, DC, 20007, US
      38.9134043 -77.0660321
    • Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial LibraryBorrow it
      901 G Street NW, Washington, DC, 20001, US
      38.8986949 -77.0247823

Library Links

Structured data from the Bibframe namespace is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by DC Public Library System. Additional terms may apply to data associated with third party namespaces.
Processing Feedback ...