Envy: The Seven Deadly Sins

Description

Malice that cannot speak its name, cold-blooded but secret hostility, impotent desire, hidden rancor and spite--all cluster at the center of envy. Envy clouds thought, writes Joseph Epstein, clobbers generosity, precludes any hope of serenity, and ends in shriveling the heart. Of the seven deadly sins, he concludes, only envy is no fun at all. Writing in a conversational, erudite, self-deprecating style that wears its learning lightly, Epstein takes us on a stimulating tour of the many faces of envy. He considers what great thinkers--such as John Rawls, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche--have written about envy; distinguishes between envy, yearning, jealousy, resentment, and schadenfreude ("a hardy perennial in the weedy garden of sour emotions"); and catalogs the many things that are enviable, including wealth, beauty, power, talent, knowledge and wisdom, extraordinary good luck, and youth (or as the title of Epstein's chapter on youth has it, "The Young, God Damn Them"). He looks at resentment in academia, where envy is mixed with snobbery, stirred by impotence, and played out against a background of cosmic injustice; and he offers a brilliant reading of Othello as a play more driven by Iago's envy than Othello's jealousy. He reveals that envy has a strong touch of malice behind it--the envious want to destroy the happiness of others. He suggests that envy of the astonishing success of Jews in Germany and Austria may have lurked behind the virulent anti-Semitism of the Nazis. As he proved in his best-selling Snobbery, Joseph Epstein has an unmatched ability to highlight our failings in a way that is thoughtful, provocative, and entertaining. If envy is no fun, Epstein's Envy is truly a joy to read.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Other editions

• 

  Envy: Theory and Research

  • 2008
  • 372 pages
  • Paperback
  • Oxford University Press
• 

  Envy: The Seven Deadly Sins

  • 2003-08-28
  • 109 pages
  • Paperback
  • Oxford University Press
• 

  Envy

  • 2020-05-19
  • - pages
  • Paperback
  • Grand Central Publishing
• 

  Envy

  • 2019-04-04
  • 432 pages
  • Ebook
  • HarperCollins UK

Similar books

• 

  An American Carpenter's Story: One baby boomers life changing spiritual journey

  By William Darroch

  After just a year or so, my father saw several lots for sale in the small village of Timberlake, Ohio, just thirty minutes from Cleveland.

• 

  Fear of the Other: No Fear in Love

  By Bishop William H. Willimon

  “Barack Obama,” “Hillary Clinton,” “Britney Spears,” and “Justin Timberlake” found their places somewhat to the left of the really, really good “Teresa” and ...

• 

  Running With The Horses: Living The Gospel

  By William Mitchell

  ... Gregory Pritchard, Robert Clarke and Donald Wester of philosophy; from the religion faculty, James Timberlake, Rowena Strickland, Dan Holcomb, ...

• 

  Darkness is as Light

  By EDITH ADHIAMBO, ANDREA BAILEY, CHRISTINA BAKER

  walked over the frost-brittled grass, my long skirt swishing it dryly. I'd come to weep below the willows, to let the sound of the stream carry my lament ...

• 

  Women in New Religions

  By Laura Vance

  Frost, Gavin, and Yvonne Frost. The Good Witch's Bible. 7th ed. ... Gordon, Lynn D., ed. Gender and Higher Education in the Progressive Era.

• 

  The Making of a Mature Disciple

  By Kenneth S. Todd

  Kenneth S. Todd. Reasons. to. Obey. God. Let's discuss four reasons why we should obey God. The first two deal with how we personally deal with God.

• 

  Being God's Man by Pursuing Friendships

  By Stephen Arterburn, Kenneth L. Luck, Todd Wendorff

  God's word is clear about the importance of godly friendships. This edition shows men how valuable those friendships are to spiritual growth.

• 

  English Ministry Crisis in Chinese Canadian Churches: Towards the Retention of English-Speaking Adults from Chinese Canadian Churches through Associated Parallel...

  By Matthew Richard Sheldon Todd

  In 2011, Thom S. Rainer published some research project results in a volume ... projecting the top challenging issue they deal with in bicultural settings ...

• 

  Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-Profit

  By John Pearson

  " Based on Pearson's 48-hour Management Buckets Workshop Experience, Mastering the Management Buckets offers detailed implementation tools, including 99 practical takeaways that a leader could implement immediately, plus nine management ...

• 

  Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-Profit

  By John Pearson

  " Based on Pearson's 48-hour Management Buckets Workshop Experience, Mastering the Management Buckets offers detailed implementation tools, including 99 practical takeaways that a leader could implement immediately, plus nine management ...