Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature Reviews
Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature
A treasure-house of literary entertainment, featuring a century’s worth of the best reviews, essays, and interviews ever published in The New York Times Book Review.
With more than 250 selections, Books of the Century — now updated for this paperback edition — 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 The Diary of a Young Girl, E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, and Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. Also selected from the Book Review’s pages are letters to the editor from Jack London and Joseph Conrad, interviews with Émile Zola and Vladimir Nabokov, essays by Saul Bellow and Gabriel García Márquez, and the “Oops!” feature, which humbly presents reviews of classics such as Catch-22 and The Catcher in the Rye that the Book Review initially panned. A time line runs throughout, highlighting the century’s literary landmarks. Bringing together classic reviews and writings, The New York Times Book Review has created a resource to be read and cherished for years to come.
Books of the Century, modestly subtitled A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature, is a fine and firm rebuff to anyone who has ever thought the New York Times Book Review the stodgiest of institutions. Sifting through the archives, the editors have come up with a wealth of killer critiques, beginning with an ambivalent notice of The Spoils of Poynton and ending with Martin Amis’s ecstasy over Underworld. Many of the reviews feature matches made in editorial heaven: Randall Jarrell on e.e. cummings, Welty on E.B. White’s classic Charlotte’s Web, and Joan Didion on John Cheever’s Falconer. But the essays and interviews are just as enticing. Henry Bech interrogates his creator, John Updike; Isaac Bashevis Singer catechizes Laurie Colwin (“Are you trying to convince me that I’m a big shot?”); and Philip Roth asks Milan Kundera the burning question, “What does sex mean to you as a novelist?”
But Books of the Century is not just a greatest hits. It’s also a priceless compendium of misses and major mortifications. Applause to whoever decided to include numerous admissions of error under the hilarious heading “Oops!” No one should feel guilty for seeking these out first. In the TBR‘s early years, for instance, Bloomsbury was twice a whipping boy: E.M. Forster gets slammed for Howards End in 1911 and nine years later Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out has little “to make it stand out from the ruck of mediocre novels.” And judging from the weak parody it’s afforded, The Catcher in the Rye was not initially a critical darling: Salinger “should’ve cut out a lot about these jerks and all that crumby school.” But what are we to make of the fact that as the decades draw on, there seem fewer and fewer Oopses? Apparently the Times Book Review is not just getting older, it’s getting better. In any case, by making us aware of the exhilarations of reading and thought, Books of the Century more than lives up to its subtitle. –Kerry Fried
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(out of 10 reviews)
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ON STAGE SELECTED REVIEWS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES THEATER BOOK 1973
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Review by for Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature
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I must confess – I am an avid reader of the NY Times Book Review, and just about every other major book review I can get my hands on. So I jumped at the chance to read a compilation of reviews spanning the past century. And I have not been disappointed. This is probably not the type of book you want to sit down and read from cover to cover. Rather, it’s something to nibble from whenever you have a spare moment. With the NY Times having online reviews available from only 1980, I had never seen the vast majority of those included. Not only is it fun to see critics’ initial impressions of such favorites as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Portnoy’s Complaint (as well as the nexy review comparing The Godfather’s Michael Corleone to Alexander Portnoy), but the Oops! reviews and author interviews are also worthwhile.If you love books, and enjoy reading how others’ perceived them when they were first released, you can’t go wrong with Books of the Century.
Review by L. Feld for Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature
), and especially if you like book reviews (ditto!), you’re going to LOVE this book. Gleaned from a century of New York Times book reviews (plus interviews and letters to the editor), “Books of the Century” gives us the some of the best in 20th century literature, as seen through the eyes of some great reviewers (e.g., WH Auden on Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”). I can’t decide which is more entertaining and edifying — reading a well-written review which really “nails” a book, or laughing over a ridiculous “panning” of what would turn out to be a great classic. My only MAJOR criticism of this book is that it includes almost NO science fiction whatsoever. Besides being one of my personal favorite genres of literature, there are just some great all-around WRITERS missing here: Philip K. Dick, Olaf Stapledon, Alfred Bester, HG Wells, and many more. I mean, I can understand that “Books of the Century” wasn’t thousands of pages long, and obviously couldn’t include EVERYTHING, but leaving out an entire GENRE of literature? I seriously question the editors’ judgment on this omission (and that’s why I give “Books of the Century” four stars instead of five)! Besides that problem, which can be solved by checking out David Pringle’s “The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction,” I strongly recommend “Books of the Century.” The New York Times Book Review section is a national treasure, and this is a select sampling of that treasure. An excellent book for a lazy summer afternoon…enjoy!
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If you like books (which I presume you do if you’re hanging out on the Amazon.com website
Review by for Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature
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Being in my early thirties, I have always felt somewhat ignorant about true classics and the great writers that always seem to be mentioned in current reviews and commentaries. This book will help other relatively young bibliophiles who were raised in the time of the prolific ?? Stephen King and romance queen Danielle Steele. Great literature is something that seems to be hidden from the masses, for whatever reason. BOOKS OF THE CENTURY gives readers a beginning, a start on their journeys to finding great reading and great writing that seems to be so lacking today.
Review by Tom Hinkle for Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature
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Do you ever wonder how some of the most highly regarded and influential books of the century were reviewed when they were first released, without the benefit of hindsight? This book, a collection from the New York Times Book Review, gives you the answer. It’s a tribute to the reviewers that they were often right on the money in their evaluations (like the reviews on “Ulysses”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, etc.). It’s also kind of a hoot to read the “Oops!” reviews, where they dowgraded books like “Catch-22″ and “Catcher in the Rye” when they first came out. There is a lot of fascinating reading here. I just wish it were more comprehensive, which may not be realistic on my part, since that would mean about a 10,000 page book. But for what this book sets out to do, it succeeds with flying colors.I would suggest that all who are interested in obtaining this book put it in your “Shopping Cart” IMMEDIATELY, because if you come back later and put “Books of the Century” in the search engine, it will inexplicably bring up a bunch of books about architecture. HUHHH?? C’mon, Amazon, let’s tweak that search engine a little here!!
Review by Sen Peng Eu for Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas, and Literature
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This book selects hundreds of representative reviews from NYT’s “Book Review”. This’s a great book! It reflects the taste and the trend of American (or put it boldly, contemporary) literature and lit-crit. Numerous witty articles and perspectives prevail here. While in retrospective, we can find how precise the words were to some great literature works when they were just published. Typical examples like reviews of “Ulysess” ,”The grapes of Wrath”. Such reviews undoubtly testify the high-standard of NYT’s review. This is a must for book lover.