The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorisms - Softcover

Geary, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 158234616X ISBN 13: 9781582346168

Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 2006

Synopsis

Starting with the ancient Chinese and ending with contemporary Europeans and Americans, The World in a Phrase tells the story of the aphorism through spirited and amusing biographies of some of its greatest practitioners, including Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker; great French aphorists like Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, and Chamfort; philosophers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein; as well as prophets and sages like the Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Jesus. In our modern age, The World in a Phrase explores how aphorisms still retain the power to instigate and inspire, enlighten and enrage, entertain and edify.
James Geary is the author of The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses. He lives in London with his wife and three children.
"James Geary's celebration of the smallest-and sometimes wisest-of literary forms. Geary defines the characteristics of aphorisms and discusses their history and their role in his life, and shares the work of renowned aphorists from Buddha to Dr. Seuss."-Associated Press

About this title

About the Author:

James Geary is the deputy editor of Time Magazine in Europe and the author of The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses. He lives in London with his wife and three children.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 158234616X
• ISBN 13: 9781582346168
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 229