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How to Live. What To Do.: How great novels help us change

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title How to Live. What To Do.: How great novels help us change
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Josh Cohen
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:384
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 128
Category/GenreLiterary essays
Popular psychology
ISBN/Barcode 9781785039805
ClassificationsDewey:158.1
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Ebury Publishing
Imprint Ebury Press
Publication Date 3 February 2022
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

How reading can help us live a richer and more meaningful life, written by an eminent psychoanalyst and Professor of English Literature. What can Alice in Wonderland teach us about childhood? Could reading Conversations with Friends guide us through first love? Does Esther Greenwood's glittering success and subsequent collapse in The Bell Jar help us understand ambition? And, finally, what can we learn about death from Virginia Woolf? Literature matters. Not only does it provide escapism and entertainment, but it also holds a mirror up to our lives to show us aspects of ourselves we may not have seen or understood. From jealousy to grief, fierce love to deep hatred, our inner lives become both stranger and more familiar when we explore them through fiction. Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst and Professor of Modern Literary Theory, delves deep into the inner lives of the most memorable and vivid characters in literature. His analysis of figures such as Jay Gatsby and Mrs Dalloway offers insights into the greatest questions about the human experience, ones that we can all learn from. He walks us through the different stages of existence, from childhood to old age, showing that literature is much more than a refuge from the banality and rigour of everyday life - through the experiences of its characters, it can show us ways to be wiser, more open and more self-aware.

Author Biography

Josh Cohen is Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London and a psychoanalyst in private practice. He is the author of books and articles on modern literature, cultural theory and psychoanalysis, including How to Read- Freud, The Private Life- Why We Remain in the Dark, and Not Working.