The Irresponsible Self

When James Wood's first collection of essays,The Broken Estate, was published in 1999, the reviewers hailed a master critic. The common thread in Wood's latest collection of essays is what makes us laugh - and the book is an attempt to distinguish between the perhaps rather limited English comedy (as seen in Waugh, for example) and a 'continental' tragic-comedy, which he sees as real, universal and quixotic.

A particularly acerbic, and very funny, essay - which has been widely celebrated - deals with Zadie Smith, Rushdie, Pynchon and DeLillo; its title, 'Hysterical Realism', has already entered the phrasebook of literary language.

With its brilliant studies of Shakespeare, Dickens and Dostoevsky, Naipaul, Pritchett and Bellow,The Irresponsible Selfoffers more exhilarating despatches from one of our finest living critics.

James Woodhas been a staff writer at theNew Yorkersince 2007. In 2009, he won the National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism. He was the chief literary critic at theGuardianfrom 1992 to 1995, and a book critic at theNew Republicfrom 1995 to 2007. He has published a number of books with Cape, includingHow Fiction Works, which has been translated into thirteen languages.

A collection of dazzling essays from one of the world's finest and most controversial literary critics.