Joseph Epstein: Quotes, Selected Works, and a List of Books by Author Joseph Epstein

Search - List of Books by Joseph Epstein

"I am basically a complainer and all the grounds for complaint have been swept out from under me." -- Joseph Epstein

Joseph Epstein (born January 9, 1937 in Chicago)is an essayist, short story writer, and editor, best known as a former editor of the Phi Beta Kappa Society's The American Scholar magazine and for his recent essay collection, Snobbery: The American Version. He was also a lecturer at Northwestern University from 1974 to 2002. He is a Contributing Editor at The Weekly Standard and a long-time contributor of essays and short stories to The New Criterion and Commentary. The late William F. Buckley, Jr., in his review of Snobbery, called Epstein the wittiest writer alive.

Epstein's body of work reveals his fascination with common everyday situations, amusing trends and small pleasures that he brings to his reader's attention. He also specializes in essays that shed light on the musings and ideas of famous and forgotten authors and writes short stories that prominently feature the city of Chicago and the characters that have populated his 70 years as an observer of the city.

Quotes more less

"By the way, the secret of speaking French is confidence. Whether you are right or wrong, you don't hesitate.""Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that it has changed your outlook in some ways. And not necessarily made you a better human being but made you see things.""Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.""I am married to someone I love.""I am the heterosexual Truman Capote.""I just know so many people who have six or seven foreign languages and have read everything and have musical training and they are still dorks.""I know from the middle distance I give off the look of being prolific, which is a funny compliment to receive.""I know how deeply slothful I am.""I know how many days in which I have just answered e-mail, had three phone calls and a two hour lunch. Poof, gone. They are not infrequent.""I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.""I should prefer to die laughing, and, on more than one occasion, thought I might.""I think the story is my form.""In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.""My wife who is non-Jewish regrets it all the time that I can say these terrible things about fellow Jews and she can't.""No one has really ever defined what a friend is.""Not to like ice cream is to show oneself uninterested in food.""Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.""One of the pleasures of being a Jew, I don't have to tell you, it allows you anti-Semitism.""One serious drawback about letters is that, in order to get them, one must send some out. When it comes to the mail, I feel it is better to receive than to give.""The decisive moment in the defeat of upper class, capital-S, Society may have come when, in newspapers all over the nation, what used to be call the Society page was replaced by the Style section.""The pleasure of jogging and running is rather like that of wearing a fur coat in Texas in August: the true joy comes in being able to take the damn thing off.""We know the ideal isn't where the action is."

Selected Works more less

Total Books: 82

Alexis De Tocqueville Democracy's Guide [Eminent Lives] (Hardcover) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780060598983
ISBN-10: 0060598980
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Nonfiction

Ambition 2 (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780525052807
ISBN-10: 0525052801

Ambition Secret (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780140059861
ISBN-10: 0140059865

Ambition the Secret Passion (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780929587189
ISBN-10: 0929587189
Genres: History, Nonfiction

Amicizia (Other)
ISBN-13: 9788815121592
ISBN-10: 8815121595
Genre: Health, Fitness & Dieting

Anglophilia American Style (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780718714666
ISBN-10: 0718714660
Genre: Literature & Fiction

The Best American Essays 1993 (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780395636480
ISBN-10: 0395636485
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction

Currently 4/5 Stars.

Charm the Elusive Enchantment (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781493035793
ISBN-10: 1493035797
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Distant Intimacy a Friendship in the Age of the Internet (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780300186949
ISBN-10: 0300186940
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Divorce the American Experience (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780224010894
ISBN-10: 0224010891

Divorced in America (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780140040166
ISBN-10: 0140040161

Divorced in America Marriage in an Age of Possibility (Other)
ISBN-13: 9780525093756
ISBN-10: 0525093753
Genre: Nonfiction

Envidia / Envy [Los Siete Pecados Capitales / the Seven Deadly Sins - Spanish Edition] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9788449317125
ISBN-10: 8449317126
Genres: Health, Fitness & Dieting, Nonfiction