If every outlet for book criticism suddenly disappeared-if all we had were reviews that treated books like any other commodity-could the novel survive? In a gauntlet throwing essay at the start of this brilliant assemblage, Cynthia Ozick stakes the claim that, just as surely as critics require a steady supply of new fiction, novelists need great critics to build a vibrant community on the foundation of literary history. For decades, Ozick herself has been one of our great critics, as these essays so clearly display. She offers models of critical analysis of writers from the mid-twentieth century to today, from Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Kafka, to William Gass and Martin Amis, all assembled in provocatively named groups: Fanatics, Monsters, Figures, and others. Uncompromising and brimming with insight, these essays are essential reading for anyone facing the future of literature in the digital age.

Product Description: “An absorbing achievement .º.º. A nimble, entertaining literary homage, but it is also, chillingly, what James would have called ‘the real thing.’”—New York Times Book Review Cynthia Ozick is a literary treasure. In her sixth novel, she retraces Henry James’s The Ambassadors and delivers a brilliant, utterly new American classic...read more

Four stories of comedy, deception, and revenge, including one previously unpublished, from the acclaimed author of Heir to the Glimmering World.Cynthia Ozick’s new work of fiction brings together four long stories that showcase this incomparable writer’s sly humor and piercing insight into the human heart. Each starts in the comic mode, with heroes who suffer from willful self-deceit. These not-so-innocents proceed from self-deception to deceiving others, who do not take it lightly. Revenge is the consequence -- and for the reader, a delicious, if dark, recognition of emotional truth.The glorious new novella “Dictation” imagines a fateful meeting between the secretaries to Henry James and Joseph Conrad at the peak of their fame. Timid Miss Hallowes, who types for Conrad, comes under the influence of James’s Miss Bosanquet, high-spirited, flirtatious, and scheming. In a masterstroke of genius, Ozick hatches a plot between them to insert themselves into posterity.Ozick is at her most devious, delightful best in these four works, illuminating the ease with which comedy can glide into calamity.

A short story and a novella intertwine to offer a study of the Holocaust and its aftermath as Rosa Lublin witnesses the brutal death of her baby daughter in a concentration camp and, thirty years later, must struggle to cope with her emotional devastation

Masterly collection of short stories by an American novelist at the height of her powers

The National Book Critics Circle Award-winning critic and novelist presents a new compilation of essays addressing a range of literary, historical, and moral issues, covering the joys of great literature as exemplified in the works of Leo Tolstoy, Saul Bellow, Helen Keller, Sylvia Plath, and others, as well as her own early literary endeavors. Reprint.

James A'bair, whose father is the author of the popular series 'The Bear Boy,' has taken in the eccentric Mitwisser family and the orphaned Rose Meadows, who must resist the pull of the actual Bear Boy, in a novel of Depression-era New York.

Masterly American novelist at the height of her powers with a 1930s story inspired by the real-life Christopher Robin.

Young, affluent college graduates of the thirties become infatuated with the Communist cause

Young, affluent college graduates of the 1930s become infatuated with the Communist cause, in a new edition of the author's first novel about one woman's quest for her elusive and scandalous father, whom she has never known. Reprint.

The author of Explaining Hitler compiles an original collection of essays from leading philosophers, scholars, and authors that sheds new light on the pervasive nature of anti-Semitism in the post-September 11th era, offering works by Todd Gitlin, Amoz Oz, Jeffrey Toobin, David Mamet, Barbara Amiel, Nat Hentoff, Robert Wistrich, Ruth Wisse, and others. Original. 22,500 first printing.

Presents the Russian author's stories in new translations, including a chronology and notes on the texts.

The distinguished author of The Puttermesser Papers presents a new collection of essays in which she explores some of the world's finest writers and their works, from Dostoevsky to William Styron; analyzes contemporary literary and moral issues; and discusses her own relationship with literature and the formative experiences of her life as an author. Reprint. 20,000 first printing. (view table of contents)

Product Description: John Updike has selected enduring stories from the eighty-four annual volumes of THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, and the result is a "spectacular tapestry of fictional achievement" (Entertainment Weekly). Volume 1 of the audio edition features a wide variety of contemporary writers reading classics of the genre, along with authors reading from their own work...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

The annual literary anthology offers a collection of outstanding essays from both new and renowned authors, such as John McPhee, Andre Dubus, and John Updike. Simultaneous.

Chosen as a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, a finalist for the National Book Award traces the adventurous fantasy life of a bookish spinster and New York civil servant. Reprint. 20,000 first printing. NYT.

A collection of essays on notable writers and their work, including analyses of T.S. Eliot's fascination with fascism, Isaac Babel and the Red Cossacks, Henry James and modernism, and other studies of Anthony Trollope and Salman Rushdie