Still Life with a Bridle - by Zbigniew Herbert (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In "Still Life with a Bridle," poet and essayist Zbigniew Herbert takes an intriguing look at the cultural, artisitic, and aesthetic legacy of 17th-century Holland. These sixteen essays reveal Hervert's discriminating artistic eye and poetic sensibility, one that revels in irony, humor, and a satirist's appreciation of the absurd. An inveterate museum-goer, he focuses on the art of the Dutch masters, using it as a stepping-off point for a thoroughly individual and entertaining examination of the foibles, genius, and character of the Dutch people as a whole. The result is an unorthodox and revealing glimpse into the past that gives us a keener understanding not only of a distant people, but of ourselves as well.

Review Quotes

"Zbigniew Herbert is one of the finest and most original writers living in Europe today and one of the greatest Polish writers of this century. He is a figure comparale to, say, T. S. Eliot or W. H. Auden: a classical-minded avant-garde poet, playwright, and essayist who has created a cosmopolitan body of work remarkable for its intelligence and moral astringency."-- Edward Hirsch, "The New Yorker"""[Still Life with a Bridle]" provides English-language readers witha welcome glimpse of the terrific intelligence and attention to craft that has made Mr. Herbert one of Poland's leading writers and an essential figure in European letters." -- "The New York Times Book Review"