Modern Classics: One-Way Street and Other Writings

Introduction by Amit Choudhuri.

Translations by J A Underwood.

'There has been no more original, no more serious, critic and reader in our time' George Steiner

Walter Benjamin – philosopher, essayist, literary and cultural theorist – was one of the most original writers and thinkers of the twentieth century. This new selection brings together Benjamin's major works, including 'One-Way Street', a series of aphoristic observations prompted by urban life in 1920s Europe; 'Unpacking My Library', a delightful meditation on book-collecting; the confessional 'Hashish in Marseille'; and 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction', his seminal essay on how technology changes the way we appreciate art. Also including writings on subjects ranging from Proust to Kafka, violence to surrealism, this is the essential volume on one of the most prescient critical voices of the modern age.