{"product_id":"bloodied-nightgown-and-other-essays-hardcover","title":"Bloodied Nightgown and Other Essays (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA collection of the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003ecritic’s finest essays, which\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eexamine the books that reveal and record our world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJoan Acocella was “one of our finest cultural critics” (Edward Hirsch), and she had the rare ability to examine literature and unearth the lives contained within it—its authors, its subjects, and the communities from which it springs. In her hands, arts criticism was a celebration and an investigation, and her essays pulse with unadulterated enthusiasm. As Kathryn Harrison wrote in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e, “Hers is a vision that allows art its mystery but not its pretensions, to which she is acutely sensitive. What better instincts could a critic have?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Bloodied Nightgown and Other Essays\u003c\/i\u003e gathers twenty-four essays from the final decade and a half of Acocella’s career, as well as an introduction that frames her simple preoccupations: “life and art.” In agile, inspired prose, she moves from J. R. R. Tolkien’s translation of \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e to the life of Richard Pryor, from surveying profanity to untangling the book of Job. Her appetite (and reading list) knew no bounds. This collection is a joy and a revelation, a library in itself, and Acocella is our dream companion among its shelves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncludes 25 black-and-white images\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Acocella, Joan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52337280975122,"sku":"9780374608095","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0270\/9238\/5846\/files\/9762363482321_10550a70-a64d-43af-926d-83c811b1ad72.jpg?v=1780439300","url":"https:\/\/hbswarehousesale.com\/products\/bloodied-nightgown-and-other-essays-hardcover","provider":"Harvard Book Store Warehouse Sale","version":"1.0","type":"link"}