Books like The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle

In this sharp, humorous essay collection, David Sedaris turns everyday moments—from family vacations to simple chores—into keen observations that reveal the absurdity and intimacy lurking beneath ordinary life.

James Baldwin’s first nonfiction collection, “Notes of a Native Son,” offers powerful essays on Harlem life, civil rights, and race relations that remain relevant today.

A groundbreaking memoir that blends personal narrative with rigorous theory, charting Maggie Nelson’s queer romance, pregnancy, and the politics of love and family.

Salman Rushdie’s first nonfiction collection in a decade, "Step Across This Line" gathers essays, speeches and articles that chart his intellectual journeys and personal reflections on India, the fatwa, and contemporary global issues.

A compelling collection of essays where Zadie Smith blends personal reflection, literary criticism, and cultural commentary, exploring topics from film and American politics to identity and creative process.

Annie Dillard returns to nonfiction in *For the Time Being*, weaving observations of nature, science, and history while probing God, suffering, and human significance.

At first glance, it seems difficult to imagine two more different literary personalities than Noel Coward and Radclyffe Hall. Coward's writing is playful, sarcastic, absurd; Hall's is brooding and melancholic, rife with misery and suffering. Where she throws her head back in despair, he merely lifts an eyebrow. Yet as Terry Castle displays in her provocative new study, the two had much more in common than critics have been willing to concede. The first look at the literary and biographical link between these influential contemporaries, Noel Coward and Radclyffe Hall recounts a forgotten literary friendship and shows that Coward and Hall even make subtle, "ghostly" appearances in each others' works. This captivating tale is brought to life in a series of 45 illustrations, including photographs of Hall, Coward, and others in their social circle, along with cartoon renditions of the two from the popular press. Through its imaginative juxtaposition of two major literary figures, this provocative work illuminates how traditional ideas of the differences between male and female homosexuals shield from view a vast arena of cultural understanding. Castle pushes past stale definitions - the tragic lesbian and the witty, urbane gay man - to present a broader picture. In the process, Noel Coward and Radclyffe Hall provides a rich critical vocabulary for bridging the experiences of gays and lesbians in history, casting light upon deep-rooted stereotypes that have long separated the two.

"Witty, courageous and unconventional, Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the most controversial figures of her day. She published 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'; travelled to revolutionary France and lived through the Terror and the destruction of the incipient French feminist movement; produced an illegitimate daughter; and married William Godwin before dying in childbed at the age of thirty-eight. Often embattled and bitterly disappointed, she never gave up her radical ideas or her belief that courage and honesty would triumph over convention."--Back cover.

The Literary Theory Handbook provides the ideal starting point to the subject for students, offering clarity on the history, scope and application of literary theory, and providing four distinct entryways into this vast and varied discourse. Raising key questions about the nature of theory and literature, individual chapters offer historical, thematic, biographical, practical perspectives on theoretical concepts, ideas and modes of practice. A chapter on the historical development of theoretical movements, trends and ideas makes connections between and among theories across a century of development. Separate entries on major theories bring together similar methods or objects of study, such as Form, Structure, and Narrative, and short biographical sketches provide a handy reference for key theorists and their major works. The final section of the Handbook features brief readings of literary texts -- including works by Shakespeare, Conrad, Faulkner, Beckett, and Rushdie -- each informed by multiple perspectives that exemplify theoretical practice.

Eileen Myles’ essays journey from New York to Iceland, weaving observations of art, culture, and queer life into reflections on national identity and creative practice.

In the three decades that Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk has devoted himself to writing fiction, he has also produced scores of witty, moving, and provocative essays and articles. He engages the work of Nabokov, Kundera, Rushdie, and Vargas Llosa, among others, and he discusses his own books and writing process. We also learn how he lives, as he recounts his successful struggle to quit smoking, describes his relationship with his daughter, and reflects on the controversy he has attracted in recent years. Here is a thoughtful compilation of a brilliant novelist's best nonfiction, offering different perspectives on his lifelong obsessions with loneliness, contentment, and the books and cities that have shaped his experience.From the Trade Paperback edition.

A curated collection of essays exploring lesbian literary voices and their evolution from the dawn of the 1969 gay rights movement to the present, highlighting cultural, social, and artistic developments.

A witty, introspective debut of David Rakoff’s essays that blend humor with poignant observations on life, identity, and the absurdities of everyday moments.

A collection of essays by Gore Vidal, featuring profiles of notable figures and insightful analyses of historical events and figures like John Updike and Mark Twain.

A collection of intensely personal stories of women discovering and expressing their true selves, from the 1940s to the present day, reflecting the changing social mores that shaped their lives and experiences.

Colm Tóibín's *The Master* follows a brilliant writer whose literary triumphs are shadowed by personal failures and emotional isolation.