Beginnings

Intention and Method

By: Edward W. Said

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

From one of the world's most beloved and outspoken public intellectuals comes an illuminating book on the nature of criticism

"Readers will be surprised, stimulated, instructed, impressed."―The New Yorker

“What is a beginning? What must one do in order to begin? What is special about beginning as an activity or a moment or a place?”

So begins Beginnings, a scintillating work of criticism by Edward W. Said, author of Orientalism, The Question of Palestine, and other seminal works, and one of the most lauded public intellectuals of our time. Tracing humankind’s diverse understandings of what it means to begin throughout history, Said argues that “beginning” is itself a method, the first step in the creation of meaning. It’s what sparks a break from preexisting tradition, and it’s what authorizes new texts to be.

As ever, Said insists on a criticism that is both humane and socially responsible. Beginnings is about much more than writing: it is about imagination and action as well as the constraints on freedom and invention that come from achieving human intention. The result is a classic and necessary treatise on the role of the intellectual and the worth of criticism.

Critic reviews

“It is the sense of total independence and, at times, of prophetic vision which makes [Beginnings] . . . exhilarating.”
―Times Higher Education Supplement

“An immensely useful book by one of our most brilliant critics.”
—The Washington Post Book World

“To understand Edward Said's Beginnings is to understand what is most importantly going on in contemporary critical theory, both in America and Europe. An immensely useful book by one of our most brilliant critics.”
―Richard Poirier

“Said reads passionately and bravely. . . . He challenges everyone to read fiction in the most comprehensive manner possible.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer