Leading writers, critics, and scholars show why their favorite forgotten books deserve a new audience. In these thoughtful, often personal essays, contributors-including Caleb Crain, Merve Emre, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Namwali Serpell-read books by writers such as Helen DeWitt, Shirley Jackson, Stanislaw Lem, Paule Marshall, and Charles Portis. Intro -- Table of Contents -- Foreword, by Sharon Marcus, series editor -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction, by John Plotz -- Part I: Childhood, Through a Glass Darkly -- 1. A Girl of the Limberlost (Gene Stratton-Porter), by Rebecca Zorach -- 2. The Young Visiters (Daisy Ashford), by Caleb Crain -- 3. The Diary of "Helena Morley" (Elizabeth Bishop, trans.), by Elizabeth Ferry -- 4. Brown Girl, Brownstones (Paule Marshall), by Adrienne Brown -- 5. An American Childhood (Annie Dillard), by Salvatore Scibona -- 6. The Last Samurai (Helen DeWitt), by Toril Moi -- Part II. Other Worlds -- 7. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Seeta Chaganti -- 8. The House on the Borderland (William Hope Hodgson), by Namwali Serpell -- 9. Lolly Willowes (Sylvia Townsend Warner), by Ivan Kreilkamp -- 10. Mythology (Edith Hamilton), by Kathryn Lofton -- 11. Other Leopards (Denis Williams), by Emily Hyde -- 12. Solaris (Stanislaw Lem), by Kate Marshall -- 13. Riddley Walker (Russell Hoban), by Paul Saint-Amour -- Part III. Comedy -- 14. The Beggar's Opera (John Gay), by Yoon Sun Lee -- 15. Lady Into Fox (David Garnett), by Maud Ellmann -- 16. Prater Violet (Christopher Isherwood), by Stephen McCauley -- 17. "Rogue's Gallery" (Mary McCarthy), by Sean McCann -- 18. Gringos (Charles Portis), by Carlo Rotella -- Part IV. Battle and Strife -- 19. The Road to Calvary (Alexei Tolstoy), by Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee -- 20. The Forbidden Zone (Mary Borden), by Steven Biel and Lauren Kaminsky -- 21. Nikola the Outlaw (Ivan Olbracht), by Jonathan Bolton -- 22. The House of Hunger (Dambudzo Marechera), by Isabel Hofmeyr -- 23. The Short-Timers (Gustav Hasford), by Steven Biel -- 24. A Flag at Sunrise (Robert Stone), by Ben Fountain -- 25. The Vehement Passions (Philip Fisher), by Lorraine Daston -- Part V. Home Fires -- 26. Annals of the Parish (John Galt), by Ursula K. Le Guin.
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