{"product_id":"9780691254333","title":"Glad to the Brink of Fear","description":"Author: James Marcus\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9780691254333\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 01 Aug 2024\u003cbr\u003ePages: 344\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Hardback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn engaging reassessment of the celebrated essayist and his relevance to contemporary readers.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore than two centuries after his birth, Ralph Waldo Emerson remains one of the presiding spirits in American culture. Yet his reputation as the starry-eyed prophet of self-reliance has obscured a much more complicated figure who spent a lifetime wrestling with injustice, philosophy, art, desire, and suffering. James Marcus introduces readers to this Emerson, a writer of self-interrogating genius whose visionary flights are always grounded in Yankee shrewdness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis Emerson is a rebel. He is also a lover, a friend, a husband, and a father. Having declared his great topic to be 'the infinitude of the private man', he is nonetheless an intensely social being who develops Transcendentalism in the company of Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, and Theodore Parker. And although he resists political activism early on  hoping instead for a revolution in consciousness  the burning issue of slavery ultimately transforms him from cloistered metaphysician to fiery abolitionist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on telling episodes from Emerson's life alongside landmark essays like 'Self-Reliance,' 'Experience,' and 'Circles,' \u003ci\u003eGlad to the Brink of Fear\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how Emerson shares our preoccupations with fate and freedom, race and inequality, love and grief. It shows, too, how his desire to see the world afresh, rather than accepting the consensus view, is a lesson that never grows old.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Playful and insightful...Marcus's passion for his subject and his understanding of what makes a successful biography mean this book is delightful for any reader, however much (or little) they previously know about Emerson.'  Jessica Ferri,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46803889324190,"sku":"ADS-9780691254333","price":54.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9780691254333.jpg?v=1778206823","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9780691254333","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}