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Essays Two

On Proust, Translation, Foreign Languages and the City of Arles
Brief Description
Lydia Davis returns with a timeless collection of essays on literature and language. Precise, concentrated, lyrical. No one writes like Lydia Davis, and everyone should read her — Hanif Kureishi A writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert, and as epoch-making, in her own... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3500
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Releases 6th October 2026 (Approx. Date) Pre-order  "Essays Two" now to secure your copy from our first shipment

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Lydia Davis returns with a timeless collection of essays on literature and language.

Precise, concentrated, lyrical. No one writes like Lydia Davis, and everyone should read her — Hanif Kureishi

A writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert, and as epoch-making, in her own way, as Proust — Ali Smith

Lydia Davis gathered a selection of her non-fiction writing for the first time in 2019 with Essays. Now, she continues the project with Essays Two, focusing on the art of translation, the learning of foreign languages through reading, and her experience of translating, amongst others, Flaubert and Proust, about whom she writes with an unmatched understanding of the nuances of their styles.

Every essay in this book is a revelation.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781405992657

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 02 July 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd

Edition: New edition

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 38.0mm

Width: 131.0mm

Height: 199.0mm

Weight: 464g

Pages: 592

About the Author

Lydia Davis is the author of Collected Stories, one novel and six short story collections, the most recent of which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government for her fiction and her translations of modern writers, including Gustave Flaubert and Marcel Proust. She won the Man Booker International Prize in 2013.

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