David Denby

Explores the current debate about what constitutes a classic and the revolutionary power great works of literature contain

Great Books

An inspiring firsthand investigation into the crucial challenge of turning teenagers into lifelong readers It's hardly a secret that millions of American kids, caught up in social media, television, movies, and games, don't read seriously--that is, they associate serious reading with duty or work, not with pleasure. This indifference has become a grievous loss to our standing as a great nation--and a personal loss, too, for millions of teenagers who may turn into adults with limited understanding of themselves and others. Can this be changed? Can teenagers be turned on to literature? What kind of teachers can do it, and what books? To find out, Denby sat in on a tenth-grade English class in a New York public school for an entire academic year, and made frequent visits to an inner-city public school in New Haven and to a respected public school in Westchester county. He read all the stories, poems, plays, and novels that the kids were reading, and here combines a chronicle of what he observed with fresh and inspiring encounters with the books themselves, including The Scarlet Letter, Brave New World,1984, The Alchemist, Slaughterhouse Five, The Kite Runner,Long Way Gone and many more. Denby's book is a dramatic narrative that traces awkward and baffled beginnings but also exciting breakthroughs and the emergence of pleasure in reading. In a sea of bad news about education and the fate of the book, David Denby reaffirms the power of great teachers and the importance and inspiration of great literature.

One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives.

Lit Up

Snark

A bestselling author and distinguished critic goes back to high school to find out whether books can shape lives It's no secret that millions of American teenagers, caught up in social media, television, movies, and games, don't read seriously-they associate sustained reading with duty or work, not with pleasure. This indifference has become a grievous loss to our standing as a great nation--and a personal loss, too, for millions of teenagers who may turn into adults with limited understanding of themselves and the world. Can teenagers be turned on to serious reading? What kind of teachers can do it, and what books? To find out, Denby sat in on a tenth-grade English class in a demanding New York public school for an entire academic year, and made frequent visits to a troubled inner-city public school in New Haven and to a respected public school in Westchester county. He read all the stories, poems, plays, and novels that the kids were reading, and creates an impassioned portrait of charismatic teachers at work, classroom dramas large and small, and fresh and inspiring encounters with the books themselves, including The Scarlet Letter, Brave New World, 1984, Slaughterhouse-Five, Notes From Underground, Long Way Gone and many more. Lit Up is a dramatic narrative that traces awkward and baffled beginnings but also exciting breakthroughs and the emergence of pleasure in reading. In a sea of bad news about education and the fate of the book, Denby reaffirms the power of great teachers and the importance and inspiration of great books.

A selection of essays by a prestigious New Yorker film critic examines the art, business and future of America's troubled movie industry, exploring topics ranging from "fandom" and the work of critics James Agee and Pauline Kael while evaluating how the global marketplace is threatening film with increasing demands for spectacle and digitalization. 40,000 first printing.

Do the Movies Have a Future?

An Anthology of American Film Criticism, 1915 to the Present

Awake in the Dark

Grandi libri. Le mie avventure con Omero, Rousseau, Woolf e gli altri immortali del canone occidentale

In this interdisciplinary study of sentimental discourse of the late eighteenth century, David J. Denby sheds new light on Enlightenment thought and sensibility. He situates sentimental subliterature in its social and political context, analyzing how its formal structures are reflected in contemporary theories and texts concerning society, morality, politics, and history. Denby argues that sentimentalism is central to the culture of late-eighteenth-century France. Texts discussed include works by Rousseau and de Staël.

Sentimental Narrative and the Social Order in France, 1760-1820

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, the movies, once America’s primary popular art form, have become an endangered species. Do the Movies Have a Future? is a rousing and witty call to arms. In these sharp and engaging essays and reviews, New Yorker movie critic David Denby weighs in on “conglomerate aesthetics,” as embodied in the frenzied, weightless action spectacles that dominate the world’s attention, and “platform agnosticism,” the notion that movies can be watched on smaller and smaller screens: laptops, tablets, even phones. At the same time, Denby reaffirms that movies are our national theater, and in this exhilarating book he celebrates such central big movies as Avatar and The Social Network as well as small but resonant triumphs like There Will Be Blood and The Tree of Life. Denby joyously celebrates what remains of the shared culture in romantic comedy, high school movies, and chick flicks; he assesses the expressive triumphs and failures of auteurs Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Pedro Almodóvar, and David Fincher. Refusing nostalgia, he mines the past for strength, examining the changing nature of stardom and the careers of Joan Crawford, Otto Preminger, and Victor Fleming, and the continuing self-invention of Clint Eastwood. And he recreates the excitement of reading two critics who embodied the film culture of their times, James Agee and Pauline Kael. Wry, passionate, and incisive, Do the Movies Have a Future? is both a feast of good writing and a challenge to fight back. It is an essential guide for movie lovers looking for ammunition and hope.

A selection of essays by a film critic examines the art, business, and future of America's troubled movie industry, evaluating how the global marketplace is threatening film with increasing demands for spectacle and digitalization.

Snark – noun Also snarky (adj.) and snarkily (adv.) But just what is snark? We all think we recognize snark when we see it – it’s a tone of teasing, snide, undermining abuse, nasty and knowing, that’s spreading through the media. Its practitioners think it’s funny, but it isn’t big and it certainly isn’t clever. So where did it all go wrong? What happened to the black comedy, the clever irony and the pinpoint satire we once admired and how did they turn into a charmless and witless way of speaking? Inspired by Lewis Carroll, the New Yorker critic and bestselling author David Denby takes on the snarkers. In this sharp and witty polemic, he identifies the nine principles of snark and traces its history from its invention as personal insult in the drinking clubs of ancient Athens, through such diverse proponents as Alexander Pope, Private Eye and Tom Wolfe to its arrival in the age of the Internet, where it has become the sole purpose and style of many media, political and celebrity Web sites. By highlighting what has gone wrong in America, Denby gives us a manifesto for a snark-free way of communicating in the future.'Snark is an important, defining work and an extremely satisfying read as well' John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Read more about snark at http://snarkbook.blogspot.com

In early 2000 the bottom dropped out of the life of writer David Denby when his wife decided to leave him. Propelled to make some money quickly, and seized by the 'irrational exuberance' of the stock market, then approaching its peak, Denby enthusiastically joined the investment frenzy. Over the next few months he listened raptly to bullish stock analysts, dreamy hi-tech gurus and boastful heads of companies. He plunged into a season of mania and was swept forward on currents of hope, greed and hucksterism - with cataclysmic results. American Sucker is a mesmerising account of those years of madness. What begins as a money chase and an engagement with rampant capitalism soon becomes an encounter with such timeless issues as love, envy, true value - and life and death itself. This is a classic tale of the bubble related not by a market guru or an investment professional but by a witty, perceptive and eloquent outsider.

David Denby

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