Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80309 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Guardian, 30.12.06
'Eagleton's new book, breezily entitled The Meaning of Life'

Review
A charming personal voyage round himself, I can only say it left me thoroughly surprised - and delighted. (Simon Jenkins, TLS Books of the Year )

wonders never cease. This is popular philosophy by an amateur in the best sense of the word, a man who clearly loves the stuff and writes plain English...[Eagleton] makes his case well and with a light touch. (Simon Jenkins, The Guardian (Review) )

It is a stimulating and often entertaining, if at times rather breathless, Cook's tour around the chief monuments of western philosophy and literature...The Meaning of Life is unusual and refreshing. (John Gray, The Independent )

The book's a little gem. (Suzanne Harrington, Irish Examiner (Cork) )

A lively starting point for late-night debate. (John Cornwell, Sunday Times )

Warm intellectual pleasure...meticulous treatment of the subject...It looks like Eagleton got it right. (Mario Pisani, The Financial Times )

His witty eclecticism is perfect for such a lofty subject (Leopold Froehlich, Playboy )

It dazzles...

The name Terry Eagleton...assures us of stimulation, style, sparkling, sometimes acerbic, wit, and wide-ranging erudition. In other words he is eminently readable...[a] commendably pocket-sized book. (Gordon Parsons, Morning Star )

The Financial Times, March 3, 2007
"[The Meaning of Life] will bring warm intellecual pleasure...[a]
meticulous treatment of the subject."

Customer Reviews

A struggle
I tried my utmost to read this book till the end, but found my eyes would glaze over. I barely made it to the end and the experience was not pleasant.
Maybe it is the fault of trying to cram too many ideas into too small a book. These ideas lack a sufficient introduction/explanation and the experience was like attending a high level lecture in a subject I had no familiarity with. Disappointing as this was supposed to be an 'introduction'.
I didn't personally feel as if the author made much effort to clarify anything he was talking about and the text seemed to regularly bounce from subject to seemingly unrelated subject without any solid conclusion being produced.
Maybe I am being a bit harsh. If you are already well read in philosophy and the other subjects touched upon in the book, then this may well be a good summary.

Smoke and Mirrors
Those familiar with Eagleton's work will find nothing here that has not been covered in his other books, and will encounter the same articulate but often glib survey of modern thought, with a line up of the usual suspects - Heidegger, Freud, Marx etc. And once again you cannot escape the odd sensation of an intellect that ranges comfortably across the cultural terrain of contmporary thinking without really offering something original and incisive that engages in a truely productive or creative way with any of the ideas discussed. There is always the nagging suspicion that the author has gleaned his knowledge of these various titans of modern thought from other sources and has somehow managed to avoid the actual tedious business of reading these great bores.
And this seems to me Eagleton's great talent - the lucid reduction or distillation of obscure and impenetrable verbage into entertaining and readable prose.

Perhaps the short commings are due to the nature of the work - a brief survey rather than an a unique contribution to the subject - whatever the subject might be. But isn't this yet another 'survey' from Eagleton, which as readable and entertaining as it is, does not offer anything that has not been covered in his other works.

It is true of course that there is no answer to 'the meaning of life' but this is not the point, no one would seriously expect an answer, but what they might expect is something less glib and knowing, that avoids the self satisfied tone that reduces everything to a nudge nudge, wink wink, we know better leftist sneer. Of course Eagleton's Marxism is less evident than it once was, it seems even he has realised this was an ideology long past it's sell by date. Those unfamiliar with Eagleton's oeurve will find this a succinct introduction to his modus operandi.

Thoroughly engaging and beautifully succinct
Terry Eagleton writes in a very readable style conveying complex, deep issues in a way that is very accessible. Highly intelligent, clever and witty, this Very Short Introduction to arguably the biggest of all questions does an amazing job of answering it, if "answering" is the right word. Eagleton remains credible throughout, never resting on easy standpoints and never afraid to either praise or criticise different philosophies and movements for their pros and cons, and he never slips into simplistic reductionist explanations. Highly recommended!