Surveying the dizzying universe of classic books, Michael Dirda, the Pulitzer Prize-winning literary essayist, proves himself to be one of the most engaging critics of our time and great fun to read. Opening with an impassioned critique of modern reading habits, he then presents many of the great, and idiosyncratic, writers he loves most. In this showcase of one hundred of the world's most astonishing books, Dirda covers a remarkable range of literature, including popular genres such as the detective novel and ghost story, while never neglecting the deeper satisfactions of sometimes overlooked classics. Short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for criticism, Bound to Please is a glorious celebration of just how much fun reading can be. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In the opening of this marvelous collection of book reviews, Dirda declares that his book ?intentionally resembles a cocktail party more than a work of criticism: it?s meant to be entertaining, sometimes provocative, above all a way to catch up with old friends and make new ones.? The author himself serves as the perfect host: intelligent but humble, witty but substantial, instructive but never dogmatic. Dirda, who has worked as a writer and editor at the Washington Post Book World for more than 20 years, and who won a Pulitzer for his criticism in 1993, arranges his volume by topic so that readers interested in, say, the Renaissance, can turn to the section on ?Old Masters? and find essays on both Umberto Eco?s novel The Name of the Rose and Peter Brown?s history The Rise of Western Christendom. Dirda is particularly deft at presenting well-known classics in a way that makes them seem fresh and inviting. Of Rabelais?s characters he writes, for example: ?You wouldn?t want them for neighbors, but they?d be great on your side in a fight.? And he?s tops at conveying the pleasure of reading itself. In fact, if there?s one problem with his collection, it?s that its essays are so tantalizing that they make you want to put down his book and run out to read a whole slew of new ones. But this, it?s clear, is exactly what Dirda wants. He?s included only the most praiseworthy reviews in this volume, with the hope that they will encourage readers ?to look beyond the boundaries of the fashionable, established, or academic? and to become familiar with ?terrific writers from around the world,? such as Fernando Pessoa, Marcel Proust and Mikhail Bulgakov. Any serious reader will appreciate these gracious recommendations from one of the best literary journalists of our time. (Dec.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

A Pulitzer Prize-winning critic at the Washington Post Book World, Dirda here talks about authors he likes, ranging from Herodotus to Colette to Cormac McCarthy. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Introduction	p. XV
Reading Beyond the Best-Seller List: A Polemic and a Plea	p. XXIII
I Old Masters	p. 1
Herodotus: The Histories	p. 5
The Bible Tells Us So	p. 9
Tales from Ovid	p. 17
The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000. Second Edition	p. 22
The Arabian Nights: A Companion	p. 27
The Name of the Rose	p. 31
The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance	p. 34
William Tyndale: A Biography	p. 38
A Dead Man in Deptford	p. 42
The Complete Works of Francois Rabelais	p. 46
II Professionals at Work	p. 51
Vermeer: A View of Delft	p. 54
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self	p. 57
Boswell's Presumptuous Task: The Making of the Life of Dr. Johnson	p. 60
Mason & Dixon	p. 64
Blake	p. 70
The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World	p. 74
III Romantic Dreamers	p. 79
Pushkin: A Biography	p. 82
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa	p. 87
Victor Hugo	p. 91
Les Fleurs du Mal	p. 96
Crime and Punishment	p. 102
The Letters of Gustave Flaubert, 1830-1857	p. 107
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas	p. 111
Dom Casmurro
IV Visionaries and Moralists	p. 115
Emerson: The Mind on Fire	p. 118
Lewis Carroll: A Biography	p. 122
John Ruskin: The Early Years	p. 126
John Ruskin: The Later Years
An Autobiography	p. 131
William Morris: A Life for Our Time	p. 135
Oscar Wilde	p. 139
A. E. Housman: A Critical Biography	p. 145
Bernard Shaw. Volume 2, 1898-1918: The Pursuit of Power	p. 149
Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America	p. 153
V We Moderns	p. 157
Marcel Proust: A Life	p. 160
Marcel Proust: Selected Letters. Volume 4, 1918-1922
Proust's Way: A Field Guide to "In Search of Lost Time."
Remembrance of Things Past
Memoir of Italo Svevo	p. 165
The Letters of T. S. Eliot. Volume 1, 1898-1922	p. 168
Eliot's New Life
Ford Madox Ford	p. 174
The Complete Short Stories	p. 179
The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa	p. 183
No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien	p. 187
Collected Fictions	p. 193
Djuna: The Life and Work of Djuna Barnes	p. 197
Nightwood: The Original Version and Related Drafts
Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett	p. 201
VI Serious Entertainers	p. 207
Hauntings	p. 211
Yours, Plum: The Letters of P. G. Wodehouse	p. 216
Algernon Blackwood: An Extraordinary Life	p. 220
Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan	p. 224
Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, Then You Die	p. 228
The Avram Davidson Treasury	p. 231
The Wine-Dark Sea	p. 235
Chester Himes: A Life	p. 238
Suspects	p. 242
Sergio Leone: Something to Do with Death	p. 245
Grievance	p. 250
Second Sight	p. 254
Night Watch	p. 258
VII Critical Observers	p. 263
Theory of Prose	p. 266
Kipling, Auden & Co.: Essays and Reviews, 1935-1964	p. 269
Lectures on Literature	p. 274
The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages	p. 278
Up in the Old Hotel	p. 283
My Ears Are Bent
One Art: Letters	p. 288
The Sixties: The Last Journal, 1960-1972	p. 292
United States: Essays, 1952-1992	p. 296
The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews, 1971-2000	p. 300
VIII Lovers, Poets, and Madmen	p. 303
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette	p. 306
Robert Graves: The Years with Laura	p. 311
Between Moon and Moon: Selected Correspondence (1946-1971)
The Locusts Have No King	p. 316
The Golden Spur
Angels on Toast
A Howard Nemerov Reader	p. 320
Possession: A Romance	p. 323
The Complete Fiction of W. M. Spackman	p. 327
Lost Property: Memoirs and Confessions of a Bad Boy	p. 330
Licks of Love: Stories and a Sequel, "Rabbit Remembered."	p. 333
IX Magicians of the Word	p. 337
Saint Glinglin	p. 340
Surviving: The Uncollected Writings of Henry Green	p. 345
Loving / Living / Party Going
Nothing / Doting / Blindness
Georges Perec: A Life in Words	p. 350
Mulligan Stew	p. 354
Riddley Walker	p. 358
Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel	p. 363
Landor's Tower, or The Imaginary Conversations	p. 367
X Europeans	p. 371
The Tale of the 1002nd Night	p. 374
Life of a Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke	p. 378
Uncollected Poems
Embers	p. 383
The Complete Works of Isaac Babel	p. 387
Mikhail Bulgakov: A Critical Biography	p. 392
Regions of the Great Heresy: Bruno Schulz, A Biographical Portrait	p. 395
The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe di Lampedusa	p. 399
Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew	p. 402
That Mighty Sculptor, Time	p. 405
Extinction	p. 408
Austerlitz	p. 412
XI Writers of Our Time	p. 417
What's Bred in the Bone	p. 421
Little Kingdoms: Three Novellas	p. 425
The Famished Road	p. 429
Accordion Crimes	p. 433
Cities of the Plain. Volume 3 of the Border trilogy	p. 437
Mrs. Ted Bliss	p. 441
The Tunnel	p. 444
Reader's Block	p. 449
A Frolic of His Own	p. 452
The Amber Spyglass. Book 3 of His Dark Materials	p. 456
Underworld	p. 461
XII Performing Selves	p. 465
Ackerley: The Life of J. R. Ackerley	p. 468
The Knox Brothers	p. 471
The Means of Escape: Stories
Collected Tales and Fantasies	p. 475
Cyril Connolly: A Life	p. 479
The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh	p. 484
Bruce Chatwin: A Biography	p. 489
The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan	p. 493
The Letters of Kingsley Amis	p. 497
Coda	p. 501
Classrooms and Their Discontents	p. 504
The Dirda Dozen	p. 512
A Renaissance Reading List	p. 518
Journeying Toward God: Ten Classics of Faith and Doubt	p. 521
A Science Fiction Reading List	p. 522
Acknowledgments	p. 527

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