Less Than One: Selected Essays (Modern Classics)

Description: Essayist and poet Joseph Brodsky was one of the most penetrating voices of the twentieth century. This prize-winning collection of his diverse essays includes uniquely powerful appreciations of great writers: on Dostoevsky and the development of Russian prose, on Auden and Akhmatova, Cavafy, Montale and Mandelstam. These are contrasted with his reflections on larger themes of tyranny and evil, and subtle evocations of his childhood in Leningrad. Brodsky's insightful appreciation of the intricacies of language, culture and identity connect these works, revealing his remarkable gifts as a prose writer.

Review: 'Sparkles with intellect, and combines the precision of scholarship with the passion of the poet' * The Times *
'Genius ... bringing ardent intelligence to bear upon poetry, politics and autobiography' * Seamus Heaney *

Author Biography: Joseph Brodsky died in January 1996. His last post was Five Colleges Professor of Literature at Mount Holyoke College. In 1987 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Brodsky's other collection of essays On Grief and Reason is being reissued alongside Less than One in Penguin Modern Classics.