Cover image for The questions that matter most : reading, writing, and the exercise of freedom
The questions that matter most : reading, writing, and the exercise of freedom
Title:
The questions that matter most : reading, writing, and the exercise of freedom
Author:
Smiley, Jane, author.
ISBN:
9781597146050
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
243 pages ; 23 cm
Contents:
My Absent Father -- Iceland Made Me -- Can Mothers Think? -- The Most Important Question -- Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, Gives Desdemona Some Advice -- The One and Only -- I Am Your 'Prudent Amy' -- Why Go On? -- Say It Ain't So, Huck -- Thoughts on My Ántonia -- Gregor: My Life as a Bug -- The Other Nancy Mitford -- Meet Jessica Mitford -- Laughing to the End -- Farewell, Alice Munro, and Thanks for Everything -- History vs. Historical Fiction -- Reflections on St. Louis -- Writing Is an Exercise in Freedom.
Abstract:
"Essays that show how Smiley draws inspiration from across literary history to invigorate her own writing. Among the authors she examines are Marguerite de Navarre, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Franz Kafka, Halldor Laxness, and Jessica Mitford"-- Provided by publisher.