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Benjamin Moser

Author Website

  • Bio
  • Books & Translations
    • The Upside-Down World
    • Sontag: Her Life and Work
    • Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector
    • The Works of Clarice Lispector in English Translation
      • Near to the Wild Heart
      • The Chandelier
      • The Besieged City
      • The Passion According to G.H.
      • Agua Viva
      • The Hour of the Star
      • A Breath of Life
      • Complete Stories
  • Selected Writings
  • Substack
  • News
  • Appearances
  • Nederlands
  • Português
    • Sontag: Vida e obra
    • Clarice, uma biografia
    • Autoimperialismo: três ensaios sobre o Brasil
  • Contact

The Upside-Down World

The Upside-Down World Meetings with the Dutch Masters Ben Moser

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Plunged into a strange land at twenty-six, Benjamin Moser began an obsessive, decades-long study of the Dutch masters to make his world right again.

Arriving as a young writer in an ancient Dutch town, Benjamin Moser was flummoxed, as any newcomer might be, by the language, people, and culture. As he started exploring his newly adopted country, he stumbled upon the great painters of the Dutch Golden Age, that galaxy of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century artists―Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer among them―who seemed to be asking the same questions he’d been grappling with: Why do we make art? What even is art, anyway? Does it provide solace? Or something more necessary to human happiness? Year after year, Moser coaxed answers out of these old paintings, discovering in Rembrandt an affinity for the “unequivocally dead,” and in Ter Borch, an astonishing intimacy. Featuring seventeen artists and a beautifully designed, four-color text, The Upside-Down World, in the tradition of How Proust Can Change Your Life, seeks to explain how such resplendent beauty can―indeed must―flourish in a Iworld so endlessly marred by tragedy.

The 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Biography

Sontag: Her Life and Work wins the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Biography An authoritatively constructed work told with pathos and grace, that captures the writer’s genius and humanity alongside her addictions, sexual ambiguities and volatile enthusiasms…learn more

Houston Chronicle interview with Benjamin Moser

Houston-born author Benjamin Moser dives deep into the life of ‘the coolest woman you ever met’ Benjamin Moser grew up around books. Admittedly, plenty of kids with bookish parents ensure their children are surrounded by shelves and piles of books. But Moser’s mother ran Stop, Look & Learn, a book and toy shop in Rice…

Interview with Benjamin Moser on KHOU-11

Benjamin Moser discusses his new book about writer and activist Susan Sontag. Watch on KHOU.com

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