Serious Noticing: Selected Essays

The selected essays of James Wood - our greatest living literary critic and author of How Fiction Works

‘James Wood is a close reader of genius … By turns luscious and muscular, committed and disdaining, passionate and minutely considered’ - John Banville

James Wood is one of the leading critics of the age, and here, for the first time, are his selected essays. From the career-defining ‘Hysterical Realism’ to his more personal reflections on family, religion and sensibility, Serious Noticing offers a comprehensive overview of his writing over the last twenty years. These essays offer more than a viewpoint - they show how to bring the eye of critical reading to life as a whole.

‘James Wood is one of literature’s true lovers, and his deeply felt, contentious essays are thrilling in their reach and moral seriousness’ - Susan Sontag