Cigarettes Are Sublime

"An elegant display of prose. . . . [Klein's] polemic is bravely cranky. The book is important for . . . situating the act of smoking in Western culture and telling us addicts, without condescension, what kind of dance we're doing 10 or 20 times a day."--Laura Mansnerus, "New York Times Book Review" "[A] wise and timely book: it is also sly, funny, and peculiarly seductive. . . . [A] remarkable achievement."--John Banville, "New York Review of Books"

List of contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

1. What Is a Cigarette? 23

2. Cigarettes Are Sublime 51

3. Zeno's Paradox 77

4. The Devil in Carmen 105

5. The Soldier's Friend 135

6. "L'air du temps" 157

A Polemical Conclusion 181

Notes 195

Works Cited 203

Index 207

About the author

Richard Klein is Professor of French at Cornell University and editor of Diacritics. He quit smoking while writing Cigarettes Are Sublime and has been nicotine-free ever since.

Product details

• Authors: Klein, Richard Klein, Richard Klein
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 20.01.1995
• EAN: 9780822316411
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-1641-1
• No. of pages: 232
• Dimensions: 154 mm x 226 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 386 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); LITERARY CRITICISM / General, Literature - Classics / Criticism