Meandering (at a delicious, leisurely pace) through Michael Dirda's CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE, one feels as though he is riding shotgun through a world of both well-known and unknown wonders with an expert guide. And though Michael Kinsley, in his blurb, writes, "Michael Dirda is the best-read person in America. But he doesn't rub it in," he forgets to add this: Dirda seems to fervently hope you will not only appreciate his literary expertise, but will also rise to meet it. His voice is that generous and unpretentious.
Dirda divides his mostly 2-4 page descriptions of classics you should read into these novel categories: Playful Imaginations, Heroes of Their Time, Love's Mysteries, Words from the Wise, Everyday Magic, Lives of Consequence, The Dark Side, Traveler's Tales, The Way We Live Now, Realms of Adventure, and Encyclopedic Visions. Those titles alone are like browsing colorful glossies at the travel agency. You can't wait to jump in.
In Realms of Adventure, Dirda shows his range of tastes, including writers as varied as Rudyard Kipling and Dashiell Hammett. In reviewing H. Rider Haggard's KING SOLOMON'S MINES, Dirda shares a typically fascinating piece of trivia: "He [Haggard] had reportedly boasted that he could write a better novel than Robert Louis Stevenson's TREASURE ISLAND. His brother challenged him to prove it, and KING SOLOMON'S MINES was the result." At the end of the essay on Haggard, Dirda plays coy: "Is it better than TREASURE ISLAND? As a boy I thought so, but happily there's no need to choose between them." Nevertheless, Dirda's job is done. The less well-known H. Rider Haggard's two books, KING SOLOMON'S MINES and SHE are added to the reader's (THIS reader's, anyway) already listing "To-Be-Read" pile.
Which brings me to this: Bibliophile's beware. Dirda's beguilingly delightful insights into the works of some 88 authors will literally charm you onto turf where angels formerly feared to tread ("angels" being your former reading self). In the section Encyclopedic Visions, he even makes Edward Gibbon's HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE sound tempting. Not that I'm going to go there anytime soon. First there are too many formerly unknown or forgotten shorter classics I want to visit: Jean Toomer's CANE, Edward Gorey's AMPHIGOREY, Lucian's THE TRUE HISTORY, and E.T.A. Hoffman's short stories, for starters.
Bottom line? This is a great resource to own for those of us who love to live by the oft-repeated words, "So many books, so little time." It's a problem we not only can, but love to, live with... |
Classics for Pleasure Books In Print, Audio Books.