Pleasing Myself: From 'Beowolf' to Philip Roth

About this book

Frank Kermode is often regarded as the leading literary critic now writing in English; his recent book Shakespeares Language which became a bestseller in both Britain and America was a reminder of the originality and humanity - and good sense - of his criticism. Kermode himself said that much of his best work has been done at shorter length in the essays he has written on a very wide range of subjects for literary journals of one kind or another. Pleasing Myself brings the best of these pieces from the last decade on topics as diverse as Donne Yeats Howard Hodgkin gnosticism the sea and money as well as further thoughts on Shakespeare. Each of them is concise and entertaining and has something original or pithy to say about its subject. They will bring as much pleasure to their readers as Kermode unashamedly admits to writing of them brought to the author.