The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal

Written by Gore Vidal and Jay Parini (Editor)

Narrated by Jeff Cummings

Gore Vidal—novelist, playwright, critic, screenwriter, memoirist, indefatigable political commentator, and controversialist—is America’s premier man of letters. No other writer brings more sparkling wit, vast learning, indelible personality, and provocative mirth to the job of writing an essay.

This long-needed volume comprises some twenty-four of his best-loved pieces of criticism, political commentary, memoir, portraiture, and, occasionally, unfettered score settling. It will stand as one of the most enjoyable and durable works from the hand and mind of this vastly accomplished and entertaining immortal of American literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jul 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543696868

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) was born at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His first novel, Williwaw, written when he was 19 years old and serving in the army, appeared in the spring of 1946. He wrote 23 novels, five plays, many screenplays, short stories, well over 200 essays, and a memoir.

Reviews for The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal

[fledgist · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Edited collection of the essays both literary and political of the great American novelist, from the 1950s to the 2000s. This is, as is to be expected, an idiosyncratic, occasionally dyspeptic, highly literate,highly intelligent view of American life, politics, and letters. Amazingly written, superbly analyzed.

[jburlinson_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A green book, in that it contains >90% recycled material. Much better value for the money would be picking up a used copy of Vidal's United States, which itself is composed of nearly everything that he had previously published in such collections as Matters of Fact and Fiction, and Homage to Daniel Shays, the latter of which already consisted of nearly all of Reflections from a Sinking Ship. Just about all of the best of these various essays had been published in The New York Review of Books, so perhaps a subscription to the electronic edition of NYRB would actually be your very best bet.

[nemoman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

These collected essays range from literary criticism to political commentary. Boy can this guy write. His prose is so clean and his intelligence so wide ranging that I find myself enjoying discourses on authors and books I do not know. I only wish Vidal had spent more time on those authors he admired.