Throughout his career, William Gass relentlessly pushed at the
boundaries of language, celebrating the music of the sentence and the
aesthetics of the written word. Now, the best and most important of his
work is collected in one volume. There are essays on Plato, Hobbes,
James, Joyce, Beckett, Stein, Gaddis, Sterne, Ford Madox Ford, Thomas
Mann. There are pieces that examine the inner workings of writing. There
is his masterful short fiction, from the perfectly crafted novella "In
Camera" to the mythical "In the Heart of the Heart of the Country." And
there are excerpts from his novels, including his magnum opus, The
Tunnel. Taken together, this collection is a peerless, essential
celebration of literature--and an invaluable guide for anyone who wants
to understand how great writing works.