When most critics were using Freudian theories to study literature, Mark Edmundson read Freud's writings as literature - alongside the works of poets grappling with the heady issues of desire, narcissism, and grief. "Towards Reading Freud" weighs the psychoanalyst's therapeutic directives against hi[...]

In this important book, acclaimed author Mark Edmundson reconceives the value and promise of reading. He enjoins educators to stop offering up literature as facile entertainment and instead teach students to read in a way that can change their lives for the better. At once controversial and inspirin[...]

Mark Edmundson's essays reclaim college not as the province of high-priced tuition, career training, and interactive online courses, but as the place where serious people go to broaden their minds and learn to live the rest of their lives.A renowned professor of English at the University of Virginia[...]