The Ruffian on the Stair: Reflections on Death

DINNAGE, ROSEMARY

ISBN 10: 0670827630 / ISBN 13: 9780670827633

Published by Viking Press, London, 1990

About this Item

"1" in number row. FINE IN FINE DUST JACKET WITH ORIGINAL U.K.PRICE.

Seller Inventory # 27507

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Ruffian on the Stair: Reflections on Death
• Publisher: Viking Press, London
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670827630
• ISBN 13: 9780670827633
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: First Edition, First printing.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Miscellaneous

About this title

Synopsis

A number of people, some of them eminent and well-known, some of them ordinary men and women, talk about death and what it means to them. Here we have: Jonathan Miller talking expansively on the metaphors in which he has conceived of it since childhood and how they have influenced his theatre work - Roy Porter on the history of people's attitudes to it - Oxford philosopher Galen Stawson on how he overcame his terror of it despite lacking still any religious faith - and a London fireman on what it is like to face and see death every day of the week - and so on. A collection, edited by Rosemary Dinnage, who previously wrote a book of interviews about psychotherapy, "One to One".

Reviews

This book is a curious compilation of interviews with a variety of English people on the subject of death. It has been edited so that the interviews read like essays, and the reader never knows exactly what the interviewer asked. Clearly, Drinnage did not ask the same questions of everyone, and the result is more a hodgepodge than a unified collection. However, letting some of these people talk about death and its meaning is fascinating, and the interviews with an anthropologist, a fireman, a Sudanese refugee, and several Holocaust survivors are particularly rewarding. A few of the interviewees discuss psychic experiences involving the dead. Others talk about the deep depressions they experienced after the death of a loved one. It is hard to imagine anyone reading this book from cover to cover, but the variety makes it likely that many people will find one or more interviews worthwhile. Still, not an essential purchase.
- Lucy Patrick, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.