On Waiting

'This is a quite remarkable book, a pleasure to read. Not only is it clear and informative but also by turns witty, melancholic and insightful. The book is astonishingly erudite, but wears this learning so lightly and so charmingly that it is both easy and gripping to read.' Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London

Penelope waits by her loom for Odysseus, Vladimir and Estragon wait for Godot, all of us have to wait: for buses, phone calls and the kettle to boil. But do we know what the checking of one's watch and pacing back and forth is really all about? What is the relationship between waiting and time? Is there an ethics of waiting, or even an art of waiting? Do the internet, online shopping and text messaging mean that waiting has come to an end?

On Waiting explores such and similar questions in compelling fashion. Drawing on some fascinating examples, from the philosopher Henri Bergson's musings on a lump of sugar to Kate Croy waiting in Wings of the Dove to the writings of Rilke, Bishop, and Carver, On Waiting examines this ever-present yet overlooked phenomenon from diverse angles in fascinating style. On Waiting is the first book to present a philosophy of waiting.

Philosophy/Literature

Harold Schweizer is Professor of English and Chair of the English Department at Bucknell University. He teaches courses in modern poetry, literary theory, holocaust studies, representations of suffering, and the comparative humanities. His publications include Suffering and the Remedy of Art (1997), The Bucknell Lectures in Literary Theory (ed. 1989-94), and others. His most recent publications, on the temporality of waiting, have appeared in Soundings, The University of Toronto Quarterly, and The Journal of Modern Literature.