1
of
1
Against Interpretation
And Other Essays
Brief Description
A reissue of Susan Sontag's classic first collection, featuring some of her most beloved writing—on art, life, camp, and criticism—that cemented her legacy as one of the brightest thinkers of, and beyond, her generation. Susan Sontag is widely regarded as one of the most formidable, original,...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$5400
Unit price
/
Unavailable
International Supplier
This title is in-stock with overseas suppliers. While it is not available locally, we fly books in weekly from the US and UK to our Auckland warehouse for immediate dispatch.
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 2-3 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Against Interpretation
$5400
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
From Page to Panel: The Rise of Graphic Novel Adaptations
Discover why graphic novel adaptations are booming, from ‘Dune’ and ‘Sapiens’ to ‘Call Me by...
Why You Should Read Folk Horror!
If you're looking for a new read and haven't yet tried Folk Horror as a...
Movie Review on The End of Oak Street
Lizzy and Roopa are sharing their reviews of The End of Oak Street, a movie...
We Expanded Our Board Game Range…400+ New Games in Stock Now!
Board game week has arrived at Book Hero! 🎲 We’ve expanded our range, with 400...
What We Played: A Weekend Full of Board Games
What happens when you fill an entire weekend with board games? From family games with...
See more"A reissue of Susan Sontag's classic first collection, featuring some of her most beloved writing-on art, life, camp, and criticism-that cemented her legacy as one of the brightest thinkers of, and beyond, her generation"--
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
A reissue of Susan Sontag's classic first collection, featuring some of her most beloved writing—on art, life, camp, and criticism—that cemented her legacy as one of the brightest thinkers of, and beyond, her generation.
Susan Sontag is widely regarded as one of the most formidable, original, and influential writers of the last century. Against Interpretation is a modern classic, her first-ever collection and the work that launched her storied career when it was published in 1966. It has influenced generations of readers and still contains some of her best-known essays, including "Notes on Camp," "Against Interpretation," and a dazzling range of, well, interpretations.
Grand in scope—ranging from philosophy to film to religion to psychoanalysis—and short in length, this pocket-sized, pithy, and profound book introduces "a larger-than-life intellectual powerhouse" (Leslie Jamison).
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781250374752
Publisher: St Martin's Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 15 April 2025
Country: United States
Imprint: St Martin's Press
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 23.0mm
Width: 138.0mm
Height: 209.0mm
Weight: 281g
Pages: 336
About the Author
Susan Sontag was the author of four novels, including The Benefactor, Death Kit, The Volcano Lover, and In America, which won the 2000 National Book Award for fiction; a collection of stories, I, etcetera; several plays, including Alice in Bed; and nine works of essays, among them On Photography, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. In 2001, Sontag was awarded the Jerusalem Prize for the body of her work. She died in New York City in 2004.
Also by Susan Sontag
View all-
Buy to WinNotes on Camp
In Notes on Camp, Susan Sontag explores the intriguing and often misunderstood aesthetic of "camp," delving into the reasons why certain art forms, fashion, and cultural expressions resonate uniquely with audiences. Through incisive analysis and sharp insights, Sontag unravels the complex interplays between taste, irony, and exaggerated style. This essay is a compelling exploration of the pseudo-serious, the extravagant, and...Paperback$699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to WinAgainst Interpretation and Other Essays
Against Interpretation and Other Essays is a landmark collection that showcases the formidable intellect and insightful critique of Susan Sontag. Originally published in 1966, this collection has never gone out of print and continues to resonate with readers around the world due to its timeless exploration of art, culture, and thought. As Sontag's first collection of essays, it firmly established...Paperback$3200Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
On Women
On Women brings together Susan Sontag's most fearless and incisive writing on women, a crucial aspect of her work that has not until now received the attention it deserves. For the most part written in the 1970s during the height of second-wave feminism, Sontag's essays are strikingly relevant to our contemporary conversations. At times powerfully in sync and at others...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Buy to WinIllness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors
Illness as Metaphor is an examination of the fantasies concocted around conditions such as cancer and tuberculosis in our cultural history. Susan Sontag argues that illness is not a metaphor and that the most truthful way of regarding illness—and the healthiest way of being ill—is to resist such thinking. Her examples of metaphors and images of illness are taken from...Paperback$3600Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to WinStyles of Radical Will
Styles of Radical Will is Susan Sontag's second collection of groundbreaking essays, now available in Penguin Modern Classics. This collection features some of the most significant pieces of criticism from the twentieth century. Among them are the classics "The Aesthetics of Silence," offering a brilliant account of language, thought, and consciousness, and "Trip to Hanoi," penned during the Vietnam War....Paperback$3400Elsewhere:$3700Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to Win
The Volcano Lover
The Volcano Lover is an enchanting, always interesting, and always entertaining book. It has been described as "a big, old-fashioned broth of a book" by John Banville in The New York Times. The British Ambassador at the court of Naples has only two passions: his precious art collection, and his fascination with volcanoes. This changes when he agrees to care...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$2900Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to WinOn Photography
The most original and illuminating study of the subject New Yorker How do we see the world around us? The Penguin on Design series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings on art, design, and the media have changed our vision forever. Susan Sontag's groundbreaking critique of photography asks forceful questions about the moral and aesthetic issues surrounding this...Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2600Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips early September -
Stories
Complete collected stories from one of the most brilliant & influential writers of the twentieth century. Susan Sontag is most often remembered as a brilliant essayist—inquiring, analytical, fearlessly outspoken. Yet all throughout her life, she also wrote short stories—fictions which wrestled with those ideas and preoccupations she couldn't address in essay form. These short fictions are allegories, parables, autobiographical vignettes,...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Buy to Win
Under the Sign of Saturn
New to Penguin Modern Classics for Sontag's exploration of the most important artists of our time. Under the Sign of Saturn, Susan Sontag's third essay collection, brings together her most important critical writing from 1972 to 1980. In these provocative and hugely influential works, she explores some of the most controversial artists and thinkers of our time. This collection includes...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
On Photography
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A new edition of Susan Sontag's groundbreaking critique of photography—its problems, politics, and possibilities. "To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed," Sontag writes in the opening pages of On Photography, which went on to influence generations of theorists, film critics, and readers everywhere. Originally published in the 1970s, her...Paperback$5200Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Regarding the Pain of Others
A brilliant, clear-eyed consideration of the visual representation of violence in our culture—its ubiquity, meanings, and effects. Considered one of the greatest critics of her generation, Susan Sontag followed up her monumental On Photography with an extended study of human violence, reflecting on a question first posed by Virginia Woolf in Three Guineas: How in your opinion are we to...Paperback$5100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
To Tell a Story
Despite their status as intellectual giants of the twentieth century, John Berger and Susan Sontag's artistic collaboration—and intense friendship—remains virtually unknown. Published for the first time, To Tell a Story offers a glimpse into their shared history that spanned nearly a quarter-century. From sources such as their eponymous film broadcast, rare personal letters and archival recordings, the composite fragments build...PaperbackSold Out
More from Arts & Culture
View all-
Dylan's PickBold Types
A tribute to 32 truly independent bookshops throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, from north of Auckland down to Dunedin, and coast to coast. Jane Ussher's photographs show every bookstore in its unique nature - including behind the counter, smoko rooms, the mess which tells the hardworking story behind the joy of matching books with customers. Jemma Moreira's careful editing has crafted...Hardback$5999Elsewhere:$7000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseDisney Moana: The Official Cookbook
Embark on a culinary adventure with Moana of Motunui with Pacific recipes inspired by Moana and Moana 2! After a long day of sailing to see how far you’ll go or keeping the demigod Maui out of trouble with Te Fiti, catch a break with the delicious dishes in Moana: The Official Cookbook! Featuring more than 50 recipes spanning the...Hardback$4499Elsewhere:$5299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to Win
Did I Ever Tell You This?
In this unexpected memoir, written in a creative burst of just a few months in 2022, Sam Neill tells the story of how he became one of the world’s most celebrated actors, who has worked with everyone from Meryl Streep to Isabel Adjani, from Jeff Goldblum to Sean Connery, from Steven Spielberg to Jane Campion. By his own account, his...Paperback$3799Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
This Angry Pen of Mine
This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...Hardback$7299Elsewhere:$8999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
They Bloom Because of You
Bestselling author and Instagram sensation Jessica Urlichs returns with a new collection of beautifully observed poems about the ever-evolving journey of motherhood - the hard, the magic and the fleeting. ‘A raw and honest read that makes you feel seen and understood in a way that will bring you to tears.’ - Hilary Swank ‘A book to keep close and...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3600Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Buy to Win14% offLeaves of Grass
A collectible new Penguin Classics series offers beautiful, slim, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets. In 1855, Walt Whitman published his first collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass. The volume received great praise from leading Transcendentalist poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. This encouragement led to what would become a lifelong project, as Whitman expanded and rewrote the volume until his death...Hardback$1900Elsewhere:$2400Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
37% offGreat Writers and the Cats who Owned Them
Throughout history, cats and writers have bonded together in a magical combination of comfort, companionship and inspiration. The famous authors featured here range from Samuel Johnson, whose cat Hodge dined on oysters, and Edward Lear, whose charismatic cat Foss was missing half his tail, to Margaret Mitchell, L. M. Montgomery and Dorothy L. Sayers, who rescued her kitten Blitz from...Hardback$2500Usually:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Pre-order
Home Again
Join rock-legend, former Shihad frontman and lead singer of The Adults, Jon Toogood in this unflinching and no-holds-barred memoir Home Again.This is more than a rock story. Toogood looks back on a 37-year career that helped define New Zealand rock music, and the personal cost that came with it. From a music-obsessed childhood in Wellington to the deafening roar of international stages, this...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableOut 25 Aug 2026Pre-order -
Beautiful Chaos
The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller Selected poems from bestselling author and Instagram poet, Jessica Urlichs. 'These words awaken the magic of life by celebrating the ordinary.' - Giovanna Fletcher Motherhood is messy and beautiful, and hard and humbling. We adore our children and sometimes we miss ourselves. Beautiful Chaos is a collection of raw, honest poems about motherhood, capturing everything...Paperback$2900Elsewhere:$3500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Devotions
New York Times Bestseller, chosen as Oprah's 'Books That Help Me Through' for Oprah's Book Club Chosen by Poetry Book Society as their special commendation 'No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important,...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseRoadscapes
For four decades, photographer Derek Smith has explored the way New Zealanders travel, work, and express themselves through the vehicles they drive. Roadscapes is his compelling photographic journey through the heartland of New Zealand, capturing our unique car cultures and the social landscapes they inhabit across Aotearoa.Hardback$3699Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Wreck This Journal: Now in Colour
The creative journey continues with Wreck This Journal: Now in Colour by Keri Smith, the latest and most vibrant edition of the groundbreaking series that redefined journaling. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this edition brings the playful destructiveness of the original to life in dazzling full colour, adding a dynamic new dimension to the beloved prompts. Whether you're a seasoned Wreck-er,...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
