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Leading writers, critics, and scholars show why their favorite forgotten books deserve a new audience. In these thoughtful, often personal essays, contributors-including Caleb Crain, Merve Emre, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Namwali Serpell-read books by writers such as Helen DeWitt, Shirley Jackson, Stanislaw Lem, Paule Marshall, and Charles Portis.
List of contents
Foreword, by Sharon Marcus, series editor
Acknowledgments
Introduction, by John Plotz
Part I: Childhood, Through a Glass Darkly
1. A Girl of the Limberlost (Gene Stratton-Porter), by Rebecca Zorach
2. The Young Visiters (Daisy Ashford), by Caleb Crain
3. The Diary of “Helena Morley” (Elizabeth Bishop, trans.), by Elizabeth Ferry
4. Brown Girl, Brownstones (Paule Marshall), by Adrienne Brown
5. An American Childhood (Annie Dillard), by Salvatore Scibona
6. The Last Samurai (Helen DeWitt), by Toril Moi
Part II. Other Worlds
7. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Seeta Chaganti
8. The House on the Borderland (William Hope Hodgson), by Namwali Serpell
9. Lolly Willowes (Sylvia Townsend Warner), by Ivan Kreilkamp
10. Mythology (Edith Hamilton), by Kathryn Lofton
11. Other Leopards (Denis Williams), by Emily Hyde
12. Solaris (Stanislaw Lem), by Kate Marshall
13. Riddley Walker (Russell Hoban), by Paul Saint-Amour
Part III. Comedy
14. The Beggar’s Opera (John Gay), by Yoon Sun Lee
15. Lady Into Fox (David Garnett), by Maud Ellmann
16. Prater Violet (Christopher Isherwood), by Stephen McCauley
17. “Rogue’s Gallery” (Mary McCarthy), by Sean McCann
18. Gringos (Charles Portis), by Carlo Rotella
Part IV. Battle and Strife
19. The Road to Calvary (Alexei Tolstoy), by Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee
20. The Forbidden Zone (Mary Borden), by Steven Biel and Lauren Kaminsky
21. Nikola the Outlaw (Ivan Olbracht), by Jonathan Bolton
22. The House of Hunger (Dambudzo Marechera), by Isabel Hofmeyr
23. The Short-Timers (Gustav Hasford), by Steven Biel
24. A Flag at Sunrise (Robert Stone), by Ben Fountain
25. The Vehement Passions (Philip Fisher), by Lorraine Daston
Part V. Home Fires
26. Annals of the Parish (John Galt), by Ursula K. Le Guin
27. The Dry Heart (Natalie Ginzburg), by Merve Emre
28. Life Among the Savages; Raising Demons (Shirley Jackson), by Sharon Marcus
29. My Uncle Napoleon (Iraj Pezeshkzad), by Pardis Dabashi
30. We Think the World of You (A. J. Ackerley), by Kevin Brazil
31. All Aunt Hagar’s Children (Edward P. Jones), by Elizabeth Graver
Part VI: Mysteries and Trials
32. The Diaries of Lady Anne Clifford, by Ramie Targoff
33. The Riddle of the Sands (Erskine Childers), by Margaret Cohen
34. Stamboul Train (Graham Greene), by Penny Fielding
35. The Hours Before Dawn (Celia Fremlin), by Leah Price
Part VII: Journeys of the Spirit
36. A Life of One’s Own (Marion Millner), by Vanessa Smith
37. Butcher’s Crossing (John Williams), by John Plotz
38. Journey in Search of the Way (Satomi Myōdō), by Theo Davis
39. I Remember (Joe Brainard), by Andrew H. Miller
40. Transformatrix (Patience Agbabi), by Stephanie Burt
List of Contributors
About the author
John Plotz is Barbara Mandel Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University. His books include Semi-Detached: The Aesthetics of Virtual Experience Since Dickens (2017) and the illustrated children’s book Time and the Tapestry: A William Morris Adventure (2014). He is the editor of the B-Sides series on Public Books and the cohost of the podcasts Recall This Book and Novel Dialogue.
Summary
Leading writers, critics, and scholars show why their favorite forgotten books deserve a new audience. In these thoughtful, often personal essays, contributors—including Caleb Crain, Merve Emre, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Namwali Serpell—read books by writers such as Helen DeWitt, Shirley Jackson, Stanislaw Lem, Paule Marshall, and Charles Portis.
Additional text
Whether identifying 'the perfect anti-Western,' an Iranian comic novel from the 1970s or the cheerful account of a Japanese grandmother’s fitful Buddhist practice, these wide-ranging essays are a prod to pursue the world’s sometimes hard-to-find novels, novellas and memoirs.
