Home Books Essays Two

Essays Two

Essays Two

by Lydia Davis

Farrar, Straus and Giroux ·2021 ·592 pages ·Essays
Near the Top
Near the Top
I Index
57/99
Near the Top

66/99

Critics

Maybe Someday

48/99

Readers

n/a

Scholars

43/99

Rating

89/99

Volume

80/99

Rating

15/99

Volume

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About This Book

A collection of essays on translation, foreign languages, Proust, and one French city, from the master short-fiction writer and acclaimed translator Lydia Davis Lydia Davis, who has been called "a magician of self-consciousness" by Jonathan Franzen and "the best prose stylist in America" by Rick Moody, gathered a selection of her essays for the first time in 2019 with Essays One. Now, Davis continues her non-fiction project with Essays Two. This edition will, for the first time, collect Lydia Davis's essays and talks on the art of translation, the experience of translating Proust, Flaubert and Michel Leiris, learning a foreign language through reading, and an extended immersion in the city of Arles. Davis, winner of the Man Booker International Prize for her fiction and finalist for the National Book Award, showcases her sharp literary mind and invaluable insight in this new collection of her nonfiction works.


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Reviews

"Her essays do a beautiful job of transmitting that satisfaction to the reader, although I was occasionally tempted to exercise my skimming muscles in places where she dove deep into the weeds."

Molly Young· The New York Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Far and away the best and most fascinating section here is the one on 'Translating Proust' ..."

Jonathan Russell Clark· The Minneapolis Star Tribune Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Thorough, idiosyncratic, and inimitable, Davis is the kind of intelligent and attentive reader a book is lucky to find."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"It finds its most persuasive expression in a wonderful essay about a version of the gospels produced by a group called the 'Jesus Seminar', which includes a fifth gospel created in a scrapbook by Thomas Jefferson, who cut and pasted the few verses of scripture in which he had most faith ..."

Tim Adams· The Guardian Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Her passion for words and syntax charges her candid and probing inquiries into the cascading challenges and revelations of translation ..."

Donna Seaman· Booklist Read review ↗ Near the Top

"[An] immersive collection ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

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