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Home > Biographies & Memoire > Literature: history and criticism > Literary theory > Libraries of the Mind: (Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities/Princeton University Press Lectures in European Culture)
Libraries of the Mind: (Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities/Princeton University Press Lectures in European Culture)

Libraries of the Mind: (Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities/Princeton University Press Lectures in European Culture)


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About the Book

How we build our invisible libraries

Erich Auerbach wrote his classic work Mimesis, a history of narrative from Homer to Proust, based largely on his memory of past reading. Having left his physical library behind when he fled to Istanbul to escape the Nazis, he was forced to rely on the invisible library of his mind. Each of us has such a library--if not as extensive as Auerbach's--even if we are unaware of it. In this erudite and provocative book, William Marx explores our invisible libraries--how we build them and how we should expand them.

Libraries, Marx tells us, are mental realities, and, conversely, our minds are libraries. We never read books apart from other texts. We take them from mental shelves filled with a variety of works that help us understand what we are reading. And yet the libraries in our mind are not always what they should be. The selection on our mental shelves--often referred to as canon, heritage, patrimony, or tradition--needs to be modified and expanded. Our intangible libraries should incorporate what Marx calls the dark matter of literature: the works that have been lost, that exist only in fragments, that have been repurposed by their authors, or were never written in the first place. Marx suggests methods for recovering this missing literature, but he also warns us that adding new titles to our libraries is not enough. We must also adopt a new attitude, one that honors the diversity and otherness of literary works. We must shed our preconceptions and build within ourselves a mental world library.



About the Author :
William Marx is professor of comparative literature at the Collège de France. He is the author of The Hatred of Literature, The Tomb of Oedipus: Why Greek Tragedies Were Not Tragic, and other books.

Review :
"[A] sustained and more than interesting reading."---David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews "[Libraries of the Mind] is that rare volume on libraries and classification systems that reads simultaneously as an erudite philosophical treatise and a page-turning thriller. . . . Essential."-- "Choice" "A curious little book. . . . Every person should have a library of his own, Marx says, one in the mind, which is the first tool of intellectual growth and flexibility, not to mention an escape from parochialism."---Mark Bauerlein, First Things "Libraries of our homes and minds can now more easily than ever include literature translated from myriad languages. Such broader reading enhances our capacity for valuing beauty and wonder not only in literature but in the world all around. Awareness of this reality--that there are many more beautiful books than we could ever read--perhaps heightens the pressure to read well and choose wisely. But in the age of AI and everything digital, it is also a beautiful reminder that to read is human."---Nadya Williams, Providence "Absolutely packed solid with provocative ideas that will . . . offer you new ways of thinking and articulating the way you think of reading and storing what you've learned from your adventures with literature."---Terry Potter, The Letterpress Project


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Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9780691273884
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press
  • Publisher Imprint: Princeton University Press
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 069127388X
  • Publisher Date: 20 May 2025
  • Binding: Digital (delivered electronically)
  • Series Title: Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities/Princeton University Press Lectures in European Culture


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