Beginnings: Intention and Method
Edward W. Said
Oct 2025 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Peter Ganim
headphones
Audiobook
23 hr 6 min
Unabridged
family_home
Eligible
info
Want a free 10 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline.
Add
About this audiobook
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.
"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.
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 ...
About the author
EDWARD W. SAID was born in 1935 in Jerusalem, raised in Jerusalem and Cairo, and educated in the United States, where he attended Princeton (B.A. 1957) and Harvard (M.A. 1960; Ph.D. 1964). In 1963, he began teaching at Columbia University, where he was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature. He is the author of twenty-two books which have been translated into thirty-five languages, including Orientalism (1978); The Question of Palestine (1979); Covering Islam (1980); The World, the Text, and the Critic (1983); Culture and Imperialism (1993); Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine and the Middle East Peace Process (1996); and Out of Place: A Memoir (1999). He died in 2003 in New York City.
EDWARD W. SAID was born in 1935 in Jerusalem, raised in Jerusalem and Cairo, and educated in the United States, where he attended Princeton (B.A. 1957) and Harvard (M.A. 1960; Ph.D. 1964). In 1963, he began teaching at Columbia University, where he was University Professor of English and Comparat...
Rate this audiobook
Tell us what you think.
Listening information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
