A Plea For Eros

Description

A stunning collection of essays by the author of WHAT I LOVED, in which she addresses many of the themes explored in her novels - identity, sexual attraction, relationships, family, mental illness, the power of the imagination, a sense of belonging and mortality. In three cases, she focuses on the novels of other writers - Dickens, James and Fitzgerald. She also refers to her own novels, affording an unusual insight into their creation. Whatever her topic, her approach is unaffected, intimate and conversational, inviting us both to share her thoughts and reflect on our own views and ideas.

Siri Hustvedt's first novel, THE BLINDFOLD, was published by Sceptre in 1993 and her second, THE ENCHANTMENT OF LILY DAHL, followed in 1997. Both were highly acclaimed and translated around the world. Her third novel, WHAT I LOVED, was published in 2003 to even greater acclaim and has been an international success. She is also the author of a poetry collection, READING TO YOU, YONDER, a collection of essays, and MYSTERIES OF THE RECTANGLE: Essays on Painting. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

'She strides across these pages: a 6ft tall Amazonian New Yorker!by whom we are at once riveted and faintly disconcerted!Hustvedt is a lucid writer, whose spare, elegant prose wears lightly its eclectic reference points.' -- Observer 'Thoughtful, sensuous essays!her enthusiasms are oddly infectious' -- Daily Telegraph 'A love story with the grip and suspense of a thriller. It makes you ponder human existence with a peculiar mixture of stoicism and wonder' -- Times Literary Supplement on WHAT I LOVED 'A big, wide, sensuous novel - clever, sinister, yet attractively real' -- Julie Myerson, Guardian on WHAT I LOVED 'A writer of high intelligence, profound sensuality and a less easily definable capacity for which the only word I can find is wisdom.' -- Salman Rushdie on WHAT I LOVED 'A startlingly good novel, tautly written and very sexy' -- Marie Claire on THE ENCHANTMENT OF LILY DAH 'She writes like a dream' -- GQ on THE ENCHANTMENT OF LILY DAHL 'Gripping ... A complex exploration of the nature of the self, executed in polished and immediate prose' -- The Times on THE BLINDFOLD 'Brilliant ... a dark, mesmerising debut' -- Independent on Sunday on THE BLINDFOLD