Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson
The canonical nineteenth-century American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson is known for his many essays, such as “Self-Reliance,” “Nature,” “Individualism,” and “Experience,” and as a prominent figure in the New England literary and philosophical movement known as Transcendentalism, which also included Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, and many others. In this book, the writer James Marcus offers a fresh, twenty-first-century perspective on Emerson’s life and work, and argues for Emerson’s continuing relevance. Across sixteen thematic chapters, each of which uses one of Emerson’s essays as a point of departure, Marcus draws on Emerson’s journals, correspondence, and biographical details to consider the writer’s views on such topics as religion, marriage, friendship, children, politics, grief and loss, slavery and freedom. He looks beyond Emerson’s image as a lofty and canonical figure to capture the flawed and very human essayist as a husband, a grieving parent, a literary celebrity, and more. In an engaging, personal style, Marcus explores Emerson’s literary and cultural legacy and reflects on how his ideas and insights speak to the challenges of contemporary life.
James Marcus (Author), Graham Winton, TBD (Narrator)
Audiobook
