David Auerbach’s Books of the Year 2021
Waggish 2021-12-22
My two top books are both monuments of, and to, scholarship. The much-needed new edition of Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy pays respects to a work that is close to my heart in its obsessive, searching, elephantine reach. Many years ago the writer John Crowley recommended two books to me: The Man Without Qualities and The Anatomy of Melancholy. He clearly saw me well. Mary Ann Lund’s book offers a good introduction to Burton if the monster tome itself seems unapproachable.
Susan Bernofsky’s biography of Robert Walser is simply the best literary biography I’ve read in some time, meticulously researched and beautifully written, the result of Bernofsky’s 30 years of deep engagement with Walser. The writing itself is exceptional, making it also the most literary literary biography I have read in many a year.
Otherwise, it was a good year for books, better than 2020 overall, with the exception of comics, where remarkable entries seemed quite thin (at least among established publishers). This possibly owes to the ongoing genteelification of the medium and the concomitant insecurities. But Brecht Evens’s long awaited new work is his greatest yet, beautiful and dense, with stunning use of color.
Keep reading, and happy new year, as happy a one as is feasible.
BOOKS OF THE YEAR
The Anatomy of Melancholy Burton, Robert (Author) Penguin Classics
Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser Bernofsky, Susan (Author) Yale University Press
LITERATURE
Be as Children (Dedalus Europe Book 0) Sharov, Vladimir (Author), Ready, Oliver (Translator) Dedalus
The Wife Who Wasn't: A Novel Ifland, Alta (Author) New Europe Books
The Symphonies (Russian Library) Bely, Andrei (Author), Stone, Jonathan (Translator) Columbia University Press
Fetch, Muse: Poems Starks, Rebecca (Author) Able Muse Press
Kapo (New York Review Books Classics) Tisma, Aleksander (Author), Williams, Richard (Translator), Rieff, David (Afterword) NYRB Classics
The Trees: A Novel Everett, Percival (Author) Graywolf Press
Impostures (Library of Arabic Literature, 65) al-Ḥarīrī (Author), Cooperson, Michael (Translator), Kilito, Abdelfattah (Foreword) NYU Press
At Night All Blood Is Black Diop, David (Author) Picador Paper
Here in Our Auschwitz and Other Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) Tadeusz Borowski (Author), Madeline G. Levine (Translator) Yale University Press
Terminal Boredom: Stories Suzuki, Izumi (Author), Barton, Polly (Translator), Bett, Sam (Translator), Boyd, David (Translator), Joseph, Daniel (Translator) Verso Fiction
Chasing Homer Krasznahorkai, László (Author), Miklós, Szilveszter (Performer), Batki, John (Translator), Neumann, Max (Artist) New Directions
The Notes: or On Non-premature Reconciliation (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) Hohl, Ludwig (Author), Cohen, Joshua (Foreword), Lewis, Tess (Translator) Yale University Press
Brief Lives of Idiots Cavazzoni, Ermanno (Author), Richards, Jamie (Introduction) Wakefield Press
Kalevala: The Epic of the Finnish People Lönnrot, Elias (Editor), Korpela, Jukka (Introduction), Friberg, Eino (Translator) Penguin
The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family Cohen, Joshua (Author) New York Review Books
The Book of All Skies Egan, Greg (Author) Greg Egan
We All Hear Stories in the Dark [Trade Paperback 3 Volume Set] Robert Shearman (Author), Michael Marshall Smith (Author), Lisa Tuttle (Author), Angela Slatter (Author), Steven Moffat (Author), Reggie Oliver (Illustrator), Reggie Oliver (Illustrator) PS Publishing
The Stone Face Smith, William Gardner (Author), Shatz, Adam (Introduction) NYRB Classics
Storm Stewart, George R. (Author), Rich, Nathaniel (Introduction) NYRB Classics
Good Behaviour (New York Review Books Classics) Keane, Molly (Author), Gentry, Amy (Introduction) NYRB Classics
Rakes of the Old Court: A Novel (Northwestern World Classics) Caragiale, Mateiu I. (Author), Cotter, Sean (Translator) Northwestern University Press
McGrotty and Ludmilla (Canons) Gray, Alasdair (Author) Canongate Canons
PARADISE: Dante's Divine Trilogy Part Three. Englished in Prosaic Verse by Alasdair Gray Gray, Alasdair (Author), Alighieri, Dante (Author) Canongate Books
The Life Written by Himself (Russian Library) Petrov, Archpriest Avvakum (Author), Gluck, Michael (Editor), Brostrom, Kenneth (Translator) Columbia University Press
Anthology of Tang and Song Tales: The Tang Song Chuanqi Ji of Lu Xun Victor Mair (Author), Victor Mair (Editor), Zhenjun Zhang (Editor) World Scientific Publishing Company
The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories Jull Costa, Margaret (Editor), Jull Costa, Margaret (Translator), Bunstead, Thomas (Translator), Bush, Peter (Translator), Phillips-Miles, Kathryn (Translator), Deefholt, Simon (Translator), Maude, Kit (Translator) Penguin
The Spirit of Controversy: and Other Essays (Oxford World's Classics) Hazlitt, William (Author), Mee, Jon (Editor), Grande, James (Editor) Oxford University Press
Samuel Johnson: Selected Works Johnson, Samuel (Author), DeMaria, Robert (Editor), Fix, Stephen (Editor), Weinbrot, Howard D (Editor) Yale University Press
HUMANITIES
Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues Nightingale, Andrea (Author) Cambridge University Press
Lucian, True History: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary Clay, Diskin (Author) OUP Oxford
Expanding Horizons in the History of Science: The Comparative Approach Lloyd, G. E. R. (Author) Cambridge University Press
Inwardness: An Outsider's Guide (No Limits) Ganeri, Jonardon (Author) Columbia University Press
Behaviorism, Consciousness, and the Literary Mind (Hopkins Studies in Modernism) Gang, Joshua (Author) Johns Hopkins University Press
St. Matthew Passion (signale|TRANSFER: German Thought in Translation) Blumenberg, Hans (Author), Müller-Sievers, Helmut (Translator), Fleming, Paul (Translator) Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library
Cassirer (The Routledge Philosophers) Matherne, Samantha (Author) Routledge
Music, Math, and Mind: The Physics and Neuroscience of Music Sulzer, David (Author) Columbia University Press
The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790 Robertson, Ritchie (Author) Harper
The Philosophical Stage: Drama and Dialectic in Classical Athens Billings, Joshua (Author) Princeton University Press
The Roman Republic of Letters: Scholarship, Philosophy, and Politics in the Age of Cicero and Caesar Volk, Katharina (Author) Princeton University Press
Uncountable: A Philosophical History of Number and Humanity from Antiquity to the Present Nirenberg, David (Author), Nirenberg, Ricardo L. (Author) University of Chicago Press
A Time of Novelty: Logic, Emotion, and Intellectual Life in Early Modern India, 1500-1700 C.E. Wright, Samuel (Author) Oxford University Press
Illuminating the Mind: An Introduction to Buddhist Epistemology (BUDDHIST PHIL FOR PHILOSOPHERS SERIES) Stoltz, Jonathan (Author) Oxford University Press
Plato's Sun-Like Good: Dialectic in the Republic Broadie, Sarah (Author) Cambridge University Press
A User's Guide to Melancholy Lund, Mary Ann (Author) Cambridge University Press
SCIENCE AND TECH
Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything Ford, Martin (Author) Basic Books
Understanding the Digital World: What You Need to Know about Computers, the Internet, Privacy, and Security, Second Edition Kernighan, Brian W. (Author) Princeton University Press
Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else Ellenberg, Jordan (Author) Penguin Press
Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality Wilczek, Frank (Author) Penguin Press
Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science Lewis, Harry R. (Editor) The MIT Press
The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness Solms, Mark (Author) W. W. Norton & Company
Models of the Mind: How Physics, Engineering and Mathematics Have Shaped Our Understanding of the Brain Lindsay, Grace (Author) Bloomsbury Sigma
The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution Sterelny, Kim (Author) Oxford University Press
SOCIAL SCIENCE
Outrageous Fortune: Gloomy Reflections on Luck and Life Miller, William Ian (Author) Oxford University Press
Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots Suzman, James (Author) Penguin Press
Information: A Historical Companion Blair, Ann (Editor), Duguid, Paul (Editor), Goeing, Anja-Silvia (Editor), Grafton, Anthony (Editor) Princeton University Press
Book Wars: The Digital Revolution in Publishing Thompson, John B. (Author) Polity
The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance Prasad, Eswar S. (Author) Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity (Game Histories) Peterson, Jon (Author) The MIT Press
The Banks Did It: An Anatomy of the Financial Crisis Fligstein, Neil (Author) Harvard University Press
HISTORY AND POLITICS
From Odessa With Love: Political And Literary Essays In Post-Soviet Ukraine Davidzon, Vladislav (Author) Academica Press
My Seven Lives: Jana Juráňová in Conversation with Agneša Kalinová Juráňová, Jana (Author), Kalinová, Agneša (Author) Purdue University Press
Law and the Party in China: Ideology and Organisation Creemers, Rogier J. E. H. (Editor), Trevaskes, Susan (Editor) Cambridge University Press
The World Turned Upside Down: A History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution Yang, Jisheng (Author), Mosher, Stacy (Translator), Jian, Guo (Translator) Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis Plokhy, Serhii (Author) W. W. Norton & Company
Cicero: Political Philosophy (Founders of Modern Political and Social Thought) Schofield, Malcolm (Author) Oxford University Press
India and the World: A History of Connections, c. 1750–2000 Markovits, Claude (Author) Cambridge University Press
China's Leaders: From Mao to Now Shambaugh, David (Author) Polity
Hobbes's Political Philosophy: Interpretation and Interpretations Martinich, A.P. (Author) Oxford University Press
COMICS
The City of Belgium Evens, Brecht (Author) Drawn and Quarterly
Donjon Monsters T13: Réveille-toi et meurs (Donjon Monsters, 13) (French Edition) David B. (Drawings), Sfar, Joann (Contributor), Trondheim, Lewis (Contributor) DELCOURT
Alberto Breccia's Dracula (The Alberto Breccia Library) Breccia, Alberto (Author) Fantagraphics
Trots and Bonnie Flenniken, Shary (Author), Hathaway, Norman (Editor), Flake, Emily (Introduction), Hathaway, Norman (Designer) New York Review Comics
Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise (New York Review Comics) Panter, Gary (Author), Rudick, Nicole (Afterword), Ruscha, Ed (Foreword) New York Review Comics
The Fly Trondheim, Lewis (Author) Papercutz
Dungeon: Zenith vol. 4: Outside the Ramparts (4) Trondheim, Lewis (Author), Sfar, Joann (Author), Boulet (Illustrator) NBM Publishing
Nuft and the Last Dragons, Volume 1: The Great Technowhiz Milton, Freddy (Author) Fantagraphics
When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers Krimstein, Ken (Author) Bloomsbury Publishing
ART
Myself and My Aims: Writings on Art and Criticism Schwitters, Kurt (Author), Luke, Megan R. (Editor), Grundy, Timothy (Translator) University of Chicago Press
Aby Warburg: Bilderatlas Mnemosyne: The Original Warburg, Aby (Author), Heil, Axel (Contributor), Ohrt, Roberto (Contributor), Scherer, Bernd (Contributor), Sherman, Bill (Contributor), Wedepohl, Claudia (Contributor) Hatje Cantz