Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas and Literature - Softcover

The Ultimate Book-Lover's Gift Book
"Where are the pans of yesteryear? They are here -- along with many more favorible first reactions to modern classics." -- Publishers Weekly

BOOKS OF THE CENTURY marks the first book-length collection of reviews, essays and interviews from The New York Times Book Review, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary as one of America’s most widely read publications about books. Arranged chronologically, and accompanied by a timeline of literary landmarks, here are nearly 250 original reviews of some of the best and most appealing books of our century, as well as some of the most engaging interviews, essays and letters ever published by The New York Times Book Review. Among the highlights of BOOKS OF THE CENTURY:

· The inaugural reviews of such classic novels as Sons and Lovers, Ulysses, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, Gone with the Wind, Invisible Man, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Lolita.

· Reviews of the most exceptional nonfiction books of the century, from Sigmund Freud’s General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, to Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, to Susan Faludi’s Backlash.

· "First Impressions" – early critiques, not always flattering, of writers who would someday become household names, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy Parker, Zora Neale Hurston, Dr. Seuss, James Michener, James Baldwin, Anne Rice, and Sue Grafton.

· "Oops!" –biting reviews of books that would eventually be hailed as timeless, including Sister Carrie, Howards End, The Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, and The Feminine Mystique.

· Interviews with legendary authors in their prime, including Emile Zola, Willa Cather, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Vladimir Nabokov, Eudora Welty, and Milan Kundera.

· Essays such as Stephen Spender on Henry James; Alice B. Toklas on Americans in Paris; Gabriel Garcia Marquez on Hemingway; Philip Roth on Bernard Malamud; Jay McInerney on Raymond Carver.

· Notable letters to the editor, such as one from Jack London responding to a unfavorable review; one from Alan Greenspan defending Atlas Shrugged; and one from Timothy Leary attacking a review of a Janis Joplin biography.

Topping off the anthology of literary elegies, jabs, and trivia is the "Editor’s Choice," a selective guide to the best books of each year from 1972 to 1997. As Charles McGrath states in his introduction, "The Book Review may not be the single most advantageous window from which to look back at the last 100 years, but neither is it an entirely accidental one....Here, in one way or another, are our fears and anxieties, and, more important, our longings and our dreams. This is really how we thought about what we thought, and how we felt about what we felt."

"The Catcher in the Rye. By J.D. Salinger. This Salinger, he’s a short-story guy. And he knows how to write about kids. This book though, it’s too long. Gets kind of monotonous. And he should’ve cut out a lot about these jerks and all that crumby school. They depress me." -- July 15, 1951

"Gone with the Wind is by no means a great novel. But it is a long while since the American reading public has been offered such a bounteous feast of excellent story telling....He would be a rash critic who would make any prophecies as to Miss Mitchell’s future. She has set herself a hard mark to match with a second book, and I hope only that she will not set too soon about it."-- July 5, 1936

"Finally, I venture a prophecy: Not ten men and women out of a hundred can read Ulysses through.... I am probably the only person, aside from the author, that has ever read it twice from beginning to end. I have learned more psychology and psychiatry from it than I did in ten years at the Neurological Institute. There are other angles at which Ulysses can be viewed profitably, but they are not many." -- May 28, 1922

A treasure house of literary entertainment, featuring the best reviews, essays, and interviews ever published in The New York Times Book Review, now in trade paperback for the first time. With more than 250 selections, Books of the Century sheds light on some of our greatest writers and how their books were received when first reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, America's most widely read journal of the literary arts. Arranged chronologically, here are reviews of Franz Kafka's The Trial, Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, E. M. Forster's A Passage to India, and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. The editors of the Book Review have also included such items as letters to the editor penned by Joseph Conrad and Jack London, interviews with Emile Zola and Vladimir Nabokov, essays by Saul Bellow and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and the "Oops!" feature that humbly presents reviews of classics such as Catch-22 and The Catcher in the Rye, which the Book Review initially panned. A time line runs throughout the handsome, oversized volume, highlighting the century's literary landmarks.

Bringing together classic reviews and writings, The New York Times Book Review has created a resource that all book lovers will enjoy adding to their libraries.