A Ved Mehta Reader: The Craft of the Essay (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780300075618)

Unsurpassed as a prose stylist, Ved Mehta is an acknowledged master of the essay form. In this book--the first special collection of Mehta s outstanding writings--the distinguished author demonstrates a wide range of possibilities available to the narrative and descriptive writer today. Addressing subjects that range from religion to politics and on to education, and writing with eloquence and high style, Mehta here offers a sampling of his works.

Mehta provides a splendid, insightful introduction on the craft of the essay, meditating on the long history and diverse purposes of the form and on the struggle of learning to write in it himself. In the eight reportorial, autobiographical, and reflective essays that follow--each a self-contained examination of cultural, intellectual, or personal themes--he writes on his experience of becoming an American citizen; on Christian theology, with a focus on Dietrich Bonhoeffer; on Calcutta and the poorest of the Indian poor; on the disastrous fates of three of Mehta s brilliant Oxford contemporaries; and on a variety of other subjects.


Author: Ved Mehta
ISBN-10: 0300075618
ISBN-13: 9780300075618
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 08/11/1998
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.24h x 5.48w x 1.06d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 11/01/1998