Elizabeth Costello. Eight Lessons
Coetzee, J. M.
From Christison Rare Books, IOBA SABDA, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
AbeBooks Seller Since July 18, 2000
From Christison Rare Books, IOBA SABDA, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
AbeBooks Seller Since July 18, 2000
About this Item
8vo; original black boards, lettered in gilt on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper (in duplicate); pp. (vi) + 233. Edges of dustwrapper very slightly curled; trace of spotting to top edge. Very good condition. "Elizabeth Costello is a humane, moral, and uncompromising creation; J.M. Coetzee's latest work of fiction offers us a profound and delicate vision of celebrity, artistry and the private life of the mind.". Seller Inventory # 12604
Bibliographic Details
Title: Elizabeth Costello. Eight Lessons
Publisher: (London: Secker & Warburg, 2003) 0436206161
Publication Date: 2003
Binding: Hardcover
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
About this title
Coetzee has made this project difficult for himself. Occasional writing--writing that includes graduation speeches, acceptance speeches, or even academic lectures--is a less than auspicious form around which to build a long work of fiction. A powerful central character engaged in a challenging stage of life might sustain such a work. Yet, at the start, Coetzee declares that Elizabeth is "old and tired," and her best book, The House on Eccles Street is long in her past. Elizabeth Costello lacks a progressive plot and offers little development over the course of each new performance at the lectern. Readers are given Elizabeth fully formed with only brief glimpses of her past sexual dalliances and literary efforts.
In the end, Elizabeth Costello seems undecided about its own direction. When Elizabeth is brought to a final reckoning at the gates of the afterlife, she begins to suspect that she is actually in hell, "or at least purgatory: a purgatory of clichés." Perhaps Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello, which can be read as an extended critique of clichéd writing, is a portrait of this purgatory. While some readers may find Coetzee's philosophical prose sustenance enough on the journey, some will turn back at the gate. --Patrick O'Kelley
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