ON LATE STYLE: MUSIC AND LITERATURE AGAINST THE GRAIN

London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 185 pages. Valedictory collection of essays, published posthumously. One of Edward Said's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, of which there are several. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Edward Said's "On Late Style: Music And Literature Against The Grain". One of the most poignant literary texts of our time, a terminally ill writer's reflections, against all odds, on the true meaning of art and literature, as reflected in particular writers' and artists' "late style". Shortly after he completed his book, Said died of inoperable leukemia (in 2003), which he had endured during the last decade and a half of his life. What is "late style", and why is it so revealing? It is "possessed by the puzzlingly beautiful artistic works that are created late in an artist's career, after decades of creative output, yet suggest not closure and resolution but rather intransigence, difficulty, and unresolved contradiction, the 'non-harmonious, non-serene tension' of an artist renewed with youthful energy in the face of imminent mortality. Put differently, Said is fascinated by artists who refuse to go gentle into that good night, finding, instead, an autumn-summer adolescence that subverts their peers and perhaps their earlier oeuvre as well as complicates matters for critics and admirers. This quality is in Benjamin Britten's dark operatic rendition of Thomas Mann's 'Death In Venice', where a discordant amalgam of text and music shows struggle but not resolution and in 'Cosi Fan Tutte', in Mozart's gestures of longing, coldness, and technical mastery amid superficial artifice. Said suggests that Modernism itself may be a form of late style" (Brendan Driscoll). Edward Said's book is itself his stubborn refusal to accept imminent death with socially-preferred equanimity, working vehemently instead, until the very end, to complete these essays, themselves a magnificent example of "late style". An absolute "must-have" title for Edward Said collectors. This title is a great book. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (British) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: This book was a surprising commercial success. Almost ALL other copies available online are subsequent printings even if their dealers don't say so. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. One of the greatest literary and political writer/thinkers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER EDWARD W. SAID TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 074758365X.