In the field of literary history and theory, the author of the National Book Critics Circle Award winner Distant Reading has long been an innovator, refusing to let art become a dull list of names and old ideas. Unconstrained by genre, Franco Moretti's essays here juxtapose Whitman and Baudelaire, the Western and film noir, Rembrandt and Warhol, illuminating each through their opposition. "Without being difficult or jargony, Moretti proves that criticism can be both thought provoking and fun."—Publishers Weekly