“[This is a] wonderful book of summer reading that’s [also] . . . good for the cold, gray days ahead. . . . Epstein . . . describes the kinds of ideas he wanted his students to take away. . . , ‘from Charles Dickens, the importance of friendship, loyalty and kindness in a hard world; from Joseph Conrad, the central place of fulfilling one’s duty in a life dominated by spiritual solitude; from Willa Cather, the dignity that patient suffering and resignation can bring; from Tolstoy, the divinity that the most ordinary moments can provide—kissing a child in her bed good night, working in a field, greeting a son returned home from war.’ [ Epstein’s] a man of his time and above his time. . . .”

Suzanne Fields, the Washington Times (August 13, 2014)

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“A Master Essayist Releases a New Collection…

[Joseph Epstein’s] prose is fluid, funny, and always worth attending.”

John S. Sledge, Virginia Quarterly Review (August 4, 2014)

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“Joseph Epstein’s new collection of essays, A Literary Education. He simply cannot be topped as an essayist.”

Christopher Buckley in Stamford Magazine (July/August 2014)

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“Epstein is an essayist of the old school—learned, productive, and available to many occasions. A man gifted with a wit both cutting and self-deprecating, and an easy command of the many syntactic variations of the periodic sentence, he also has a fearless willingness to assert a view—and this, as any reader of the essay knows, is the drive wheel of the whole business, never mind if that view is widely shared or unpopular.”

Sven Birkerts, Los Angeles Review of Books (July 14, 2014)

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“Marvelously lively intellectual company, by turns flinty and opinionated (as when he writes of the 1990s New York Review of Books “[It] has become the representative intellectual journal of our age, with the important qualification that it has not been a great age, and thatthe New York Review of Books has done more than its share to diminish it”) and warm and inclusive, as in his wonderful and insightful piece on Jewish jokes. . . .”

Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly (June 29, 2014)

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“. . . Maybe it’s time for a ‘Joseph Epstein Reader’ that would assemble the best work from his previous books for old and new fans alike. In the meantime, A Literary Education inspires hope that Mr. Epstein’s good run [referring to the author’s 24 books] isn’t over just yet.”

Danny Heitman, the Wall Street Journal (June 17, 2014)

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“Epstein’s . . . A Literary Education and Other Essays . . . . is his 24th book. This volume confirms that Epstein is not only the greatest living American literary critic, but also the country’s foremost general essayist. He is, almost singlehandedly, holding aloft the flame for what used to be the honorable calling of ‘the man of letters.’”

John Podhoretz, Commentary  (June 2014)

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“Joseph Epstein turns out the best essays—of the literary or familiar kind—of any writer on active duty today. . . . Those who’ve reviewed Epstein’s work over the years . . . praise his humor, his erudition, his vast learning, and his elegance. . . . Epstein’s writing, like most French desserts, is very rich stuff.”

Larry Thornberry, the American Spectator (May 2014)

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“. . . [Epstein] writes sentences you want to remember. . . . His essays are troves of literary reference and allusion, maps between centuries, countries, genres. . . . [They] have personality and style, yes, but they also have something to say, and that’s the pivotal distinction between Epstein and his bevy of imitators. . . . What’s more, his wit is unkillable. . . .”

William Giraldi, the New Criterion (May 2014)

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“Epstein follows up Essays in Biography (2012) with another collection of provocative and beguiling thought pieces. The range of his curiosity is exhilarating.”

Publishers Weekly (March 31, 2014)

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“[In A Literary Education] prolific essayist, biographer, and novelist Epstein . . . delivers . . . lots of erudition . . . and . . . fun.”

Kirkus Reviews (April 1, 2014)

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“Erudite, penetrating, and decisive . . . Epstein’s delivery is filled with thorough analysis, delightful allusions, and outright laughs. . . . Despite his obvious sophistication and wide range of learning, . . . [this is] fair criticism. . . . [He] seems a humble man.”

Peter Dabbene, ForeWord Reviews (June 2014)

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“[Joseph Epstein is] a contemporary master.”

Patrick Kurp, The Laughing Skeptics (May 23, 2014)

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“Over his long lifetime of writing, Epstein has shared those riches with the rest of us. The subjects on which he has scribbled away have brought devoted readers delight and deep thoughts, and an unceasing admiration for the pleasures given us by his prose.”

Jeff Minick, The Epoch Times (January 5, 2022)