false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170889010m/76182.jpg 76182 3 Malice that cannot speak its name, cold-blooded but secret hostility, impotent desire, hidden rancor and spite--all cluster at the center of envy. Envy clouds thought, writes Joseph Epstein, clobbers generosity, precludes any hope of serenity, and ends in shriveling the heart. Of the seven deadly sins, he concludes, only envy is no fun at all. Writing in a conversational, erudite, self-deprecating style that wears its learning lightly, Epstein takes us on a stimulating tour of the many faces of envy. He considers what great thinkers--such as John Rawls, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche--have written about envy; distinguishes between envy, yearning, jealousy, resentment, and schadenfreude ("a hardy perennial in the weedy garden of sour emotions"); and catalogs the many things that are enviable, including wealth, beauty, power, talent, knowledge and wisdom, extraordinary good luck, and youth (or as the title of Epstein's chapter on youth has it, "The Young, God Damn Them"). He looks at resentment in academia, where envy is mixed with snobbery, stirred by impotence, and played out against a background of cosmic injustice; and he offers a brilliant reading of Othello as a play more driven by Iago's envy than Othello's jealousy. He reveals that envy has a strong touch of malice behind it--the envious want to destroy the happiness of others. He suggests that envy of the astonishing success of Jews in Germany and Austria may have lurked behind the virulent anti-Semitism of the Nazis. As he proved in his best-selling Snobbery, Joseph Epstein has an unmatched ability to highlight our failings in a way that is thoughtful, provocative, and entertaining. If envy is no fun, Epstein's Envy is truly a joy to read. 592806 2003 Envy: The Seven Deadly Sins total:42|5:11|4:17|3:12|2:1|1:1| 42 162 72 12 4 0 false false Sun Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 19:20:34 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 19:22:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 11:43:59 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 11 19:21:47 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jan 22 18:36:56 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 08:19:35 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 12 21:11:54 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 21:12:15 -0800 2009 5 0 true false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Aug 22 06:15:57 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 06:15:57 -0700 2009 1 5 0 false false Mon Apr 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 14:04:58 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 13:59:22 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 22 07:43:06 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 18:38:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 06 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Oct 26 13:45:59 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 21 19:59:53 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Aug 29 15:42:22 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 29 15:44:56 -0700 2008 4 0 true false Sat Jul 19 05:55:41 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 05:56:48 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sat Nov 17 06:55:35 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 17 06:58:34 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Mar 13 13:02:59 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 13 13:04:46 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Thu Oct 29 06:29:36 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 06:29:36 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Oct 15 03:44:30 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 15 03:44:30 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 19:12:59 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 19:12:59 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Sep 19 20:30:48 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 20:30:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Sep 16 20:54:18 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 20:54:18 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Aug 24 10:32:24 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 18:27:32 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Aug 18 13:39:36 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 13:39:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Aug 11 15:57:02 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 15:57:02 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=76182