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Reliable Essays: The Best of Clive James
Introduced by Julian Barnes, Reliable Essays is the definitive selection of Clive Jamess outstanding essays, chosen from thirty years of spellbinding prose. Including such classic pieces as his Postcard From Rome and his memorable observations on Margaret Thatcher, it also contains brilliantly funny examinations of characters like Barry Humphries, while elsewhere showcasing Jamess more reflective and analytical side. From Germaine Greer to Marilyn Monroe, from the nature of celebrity to German culpability for the Holocaust, Reliable Essays is an unmissable cultural index of the twentieth century.
349 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Clive James
94 books289 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.
An expatriate Australian broadcast personality and author of cultural criticism, memoir, fiction, travelogue and poetry. Translator of Dante.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 10, 2025
After reading Larkin's All What Jazz, Clive James wished he'd bought ten copies instead of one. After reading Reliable Essays, I wished I'd bought fifty. I've re-read this more often than any essay collection by another writer, and I own collections by Anthony Burgess, George Orwell, and John Carey.
In a just world, James's essay 'Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Masses' would knock E.B. White's 'Once More to the Lake' out of the box as the model for every composition class. I wish more essays had been included - gems such as 'Brezhnev: A State of Boredom', and 'A Blizzard of Tiny Kisses.'
Along with Unreliable Memoirs, these essays represent the best of James's prose. Make these your first port of call and start without delay.
In a just world, James's essay 'Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Masses' would knock E.B. White's 'Once More to the Lake' out of the box as the model for every composition class. I wish more essays had been included - gems such as 'Brezhnev: A State of Boredom', and 'A Blizzard of Tiny Kisses.'
Along with Unreliable Memoirs, these essays represent the best of James's prose. Make these your first port of call and start without delay.
June 24, 2018
Mostly haute subjects for once, but always bas on bs.
He: brags about having spotted Heaney very early, points out the fatal ideological flaws in both Mailer and Greer, fiercely challenges translations from the Italian, the Russian, the German; summarises every major photography book of the late 70s; shows that liberalism and classicism remain standing, “less bad than all the others” even after the sustained insult of C20th Theory; and some other such generalist feats.
The last two section titles – “Almost Literature” and “Practically Art” – are scale models of both his style and his critical mission: to raise the foully sunken, or shield the great assailed.
Skip it, but only because you should be reading the full New Essays series these essays are lifted from.
He: brags about having spotted Heaney very early, points out the fatal ideological flaws in both Mailer and Greer, fiercely challenges translations from the Italian, the Russian, the German; summarises every major photography book of the late 70s; shows that liberalism and classicism remain standing, “less bad than all the others” even after the sustained insult of C20th Theory; and some other such generalist feats.
The last two section titles – “Almost Literature” and “Practically Art” – are scale models of both his style and his critical mission: to raise the foully sunken, or shield the great assailed.
Skip it, but only because you should be reading the full New Essays series these essays are lifted from.
February 24, 2020
I read this after his death: skipping past the arts reviews, and focusing on the articles about people I knew of. Some of his writing was wonderfully crafted and cleverly written. Some, less so. But I'm glad I spent a few hours with his writing.
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November 26, 2020i love this book.
May 26, 2023
A joy to re-read the writings of Clive James. Sharp as ever.
December 28, 2013
OK, s I don't really like Clive James very much. The book was a gift from a much beloved baby boomer friend, and all I could really think as I read it was that James erudite, academically arrogant style was perhaps a generationally based taste. The world that James inhabits so easily, of the 'canon' of British and European literature, is not the canon I was raised with.So I can admire his skilfill skimming dipping and diving within that world as a general outline, but much of the specifics are lost on me. And what is left is the arrogance of a man who seems to assume he knows all that is useful to know, instructing the masses on the proper interpretation. Those excellent, admirable and smart people I know who seem to esteem James are all Baby Boomers. Green Xers like myself seem to be more likely Yi find the man insufferable, or just rarely relevant. Or maybe that is just coincidence.
I'll admit my back was got up by the first essay, the one in which he explains how everyone, including Orwell, has misunderstood what Orwell was all about. It's not just that I thought his understanding of Orwell's politics simplistic, but perhaps more fundamentally that I simply don't think this sort of literary criticism, where the critic explain What The Subject Is All About is as interesting or 'useful' as the sort that documents an interaction between the reader and the author through the work. Self-depracation and an awareness of the limits of understanding and the messy business of communicating with meaning - perhaps tropes of Gen X writing I find it hard to engage fully without.
Similarly, James' response to The Female Eunuch seemed largely to miss the point to me. Aside from the astute observation that Greer's powers of invocation were what set her apart, the mildly aggrevied response that Greer had overlooked the key problem - that men have problems to seemed to betray a lack of both observation and imagination when it came to the women's liberation movement around him.
On the other hand, the essays from accompanying Margaret Thatcher to China were a sheer delight to read, and I rather surprisingly found James' take on expats and the cultural cringe fairly sensible. His thoughts on the support of Germans for the Nazi regime were both complex and thought provoking, and induced somewhat of an interest in following up some of the writers described herein.
So, the bright spots bought it a well earned two stars, and I have no doubt that for those for whom James style resonates (or at least those for whom it doesn't induce frequent head slapping) there's no doubt much to treasure. I just won't be reading any more soon.
I'll admit my back was got up by the first essay, the one in which he explains how everyone, including Orwell, has misunderstood what Orwell was all about. It's not just that I thought his understanding of Orwell's politics simplistic, but perhaps more fundamentally that I simply don't think this sort of literary criticism, where the critic explain What The Subject Is All About is as interesting or 'useful' as the sort that documents an interaction between the reader and the author through the work. Self-depracation and an awareness of the limits of understanding and the messy business of communicating with meaning - perhaps tropes of Gen X writing I find it hard to engage fully without.
Similarly, James' response to The Female Eunuch seemed largely to miss the point to me. Aside from the astute observation that Greer's powers of invocation were what set her apart, the mildly aggrevied response that Greer had overlooked the key problem - that men have problems to seemed to betray a lack of both observation and imagination when it came to the women's liberation movement around him.
On the other hand, the essays from accompanying Margaret Thatcher to China were a sheer delight to read, and I rather surprisingly found James' take on expats and the cultural cringe fairly sensible. His thoughts on the support of Germans for the Nazi regime were both complex and thought provoking, and induced somewhat of an interest in following up some of the writers described herein.
So, the bright spots bought it a well earned two stars, and I have no doubt that for those for whom James style resonates (or at least those for whom it doesn't induce frequent head slapping) there's no doubt much to treasure. I just won't be reading any more soon.
February 5, 2015
I was in the UK throughout the period James was a TV critic and presenter and read many of his regular Sunday reviews, so I am very familiar with his 'popular' output.
He can be very funny at times but his 'serious' reviews tend to the verbose and are unfailingly employed as a way to display his own erudition. Many, if not all, of his reviews would have benefitted from a 50% reduction in word count.
You really won't miss much by not reading this and there are far better books by James if you want to experience his humor - his books recounting his early life in Australia for example are often laugh-out-loud funny.
He can be very funny at times but his 'serious' reviews tend to the verbose and are unfailingly employed as a way to display his own erudition. Many, if not all, of his reviews would have benefitted from a 50% reduction in word count.
You really won't miss much by not reading this and there are far better books by James if you want to experience his humor - his books recounting his early life in Australia for example are often laugh-out-loud funny.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews