The Selected Works of Edward Said, 1966 - 2006

One of the most important writer and thinker of 20th century.

Good

This is one of the most influential book of the 2nd half of C20th. It is more relevant to day than on it's publication.

. . . exposed himself--his Being--so that some truth would come through for public discussion. The reader familiar with Professor Said's work doesn't need an explanation, but if you are a reader who feels that he is polarizing, please read at least one essay in this book. Allow yourself, dear reader, to see that everything he wrote came out of integrity: He didn't have a double standard for humanity.To hear about Edward Said from others, and then to read his essays, was really to know what he was about in the world. (In the interest of disclosure, I did not know Edward Said, or anyone in his family.) The book cover photograph alone tells a truth. It's a photo which disturbs me and touches me so much that I can't set the book face up on a table. (The photo I'm referring to is one in which Said looked directly at the camera, the book cover for the September 2000 edition of Vintage Book's _The Edward Said Reader_ ). You can see in this photo the interior man made manifest. His sad brown eyes are hooded perhaps as he aged, but perhaps he was continually shocked that there were people who misunderstood him and could not read his soul. There are people--perhaps certain Israeli Jewish people or American Congressmen--who couldn't understand that all Said wanted for Palestinians was what others have: a nation-state and structure, self-determination, and the ability to live on their own land. Reasonable desires--it seems.But Edward Said was--for me--a literary man, a reader of people and a writer who used language for truth and love. Just the essay alone on Jane Austen is a work of genius.

Said's works are enlighting. His pursuit of truth and justice is clearly manifested in his writings, especially his masterpiece; Orientalism. Said's argument that humanism is all what is left to us, after democracy has miserably failed, is very sound. Also, his eloquence highly embellishes the writings, so the text and the context alike are superior.

Elegant, cultured, informed - the best of Said in one volume.