Space to Think: Ten Years of the Dublin Review of Books

by Maurice Earls (Editor), Enda O'Doherty (Editor), James Ward (Contributor)

The Dublin Review of Books was established in 2006 as an online journal of ideas. Since then it has published over a thousand review essays and has aimed to offer readers both intellectual stimulation and pleasure across a wide range of Irish and international topics in literature, the arts, science and humanities. Throughout this period, the DRB has been particularly concerned to offer its contributors the freedom and space to develop an argument: the space, that is, to think.

This anthology offers a selection of some fifty of the best pieces published over those ten years, presented here between the covers of a book as the first volume of DRB essays.

504 pages, Paperback

Published October 7, 2016

Reviews

[Terry Clague · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthological cross section of Irish culture and letters, this selection of review essays (less than one percent of the total published by The Dublin Review of Books in its first decade) made for thought-provoking reading. The DRB's efforts against "modern culture's drive to reduce everything to bullet points" includes highlights (for this reader) on WT Stead, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Jonathan Swift, and nineteenth century elite Catholics while the strongest selection collectively covers contemporary controversies - the hoo-hahs and passing frenzies of Irish culture.

With the evidence mounting that deep-reading and digital make for poor bedfellows, it is to be hoped that this "online journal of ideas" continues its against-the-grain relationship with print. Perhaps the next (annual?) edition will feature the Irish equivalent of Alan Bennett's selected diaries to facilitate an equally enjoyable Irish literary Christmas tradition.