Envy: The Seven Deadly Sins (New York Public Library Lectures in Humanities)

Fun read but misses reference to Kleins important formulation about envy.

Great references and anecdotes.I particularly liked how the author put himself into his writing and made it personal.Thanks

I love Joseph Epstein. He makes me laugh, he stimulates me to reflect, he writes like a (somewhat iconoclastic) angel. Buy this and all his other books - he's wonderful.

Used for a research report for college. An excellent insight into the concept of envy.

One of the top reasons I bought the book was the cute cartoons. I wanted to copy them and send them to others I thought might enjoy them. How can you help but see humor in a smiling, obviously happy man, telling another, "I'm sorry you're having a hard time Roy, please forgive my schadenfreude." Or how about "Mister Lima Bean" thinking with envy of "Mr. Peanut?" Now that's funny stuff.The book (or rather essay) is a short and easy read with much humor and a little serious reference to scholars and philosophers. I really bought the book because I knew little about envy, I could not name a single person that I envied, well locally anyway. Would we all like Bill Gates' money? Sure, we could do a lot of good but at the same time I can walk into a Dairy Queen and not be mobbed by people. Epstein on the other hand lists all kinds of people he's envious of. People who can do back flips, who have good posture, who are tall. Maybe this is a Jewish world outlook as some other reviewers have noted. Incidentally he acknowledges that he is proud to be a Jew living in America.Now all this being said the book is still a worthwhile buy. It's cute and funny. For someone looking for a true academic book on the subject I've learned the great reference is Helmut Schoeck with his book with the same title. Schoeck spends a good part of his work on politically motivated envy. If you want a serious book get Schoeck if you want fun get Epstein.

I read this book as part of the whole collection themed around the seven sins. This was above average, comparable to the other six in the collection. This book will more than likely lead me to read more books listed by the author on the subject. Although I found this book to only scratch the surface of the subject of envy. I was hoping for more in depth analysis as opposed to examples. Overall a good book as a starting point.

So wrote the poet W.H. Auden in his "Many Happy Returns," and Joseph Epstein takes it as the exhortatory epigram to this little book on envy. Part of a horribly uneven series on the 7 deadly sins, Epstein's book is one of the better ones (which is to say that it could well provoke envy on the part of the less successful authors in the series).Epstein argues that envy is the most insidious of the 7 deadlies because those of us who suffer from it rarely recognize it for what it is. Most of us know when we're angry or lustful or greedy. But envy is the "hidden" vice that masquerades as something else, and so it's difficult to recognize and overcome. To make matters worse, we live in a culture that encourages envy--although, once again, it's disguised as "competition," "improving one's lifestyle," or "making the most of one's opportunities."Epstein's analysis of envy is written entertainingly, and the text is punctuated with wryly appropriate cartoons from the "New Yorker." In his analysis of envy, he makes useful distinctions between (for example) jealousy and envy and schadenfreude and envy. His discussion of ressentiment (yes, that's with two s's), which he borrows from the philosophers Max Scheler and Friedrich Nietzsche, is especially useful, although of no surprise to the professional philosophers who read his book.But there are two areas where I wish Epstein had developed his theme a bit more (even as I recognize that the point of the series is to offer short, pithy treatments of the 7 deadlies). Epstein mentions in passing (Chapter 1) Aristotle's claim that not all varieties of envy are immoral or destructive, and famously cites emulation as one example. Epstein dismisses a virtuous emulative envy as "not so easily done," and quickly moves on. But it's the hard case like this that's truly interesting, and one wishes that Epstein had tackled it.Moreover, Epstein's suggestion for breaking the hold of envy, on both personal and cultural levels, is the cultivation of "self-honesty, self-analysis, and balanced judgment" (p. 97). Fair enough. But this comes close to suggesting that envy can be overcome through sheer will power, and this in turn suggests that the envious person is aware of her envy but just isn't strong-willed enough to overcome it. Yet if Epstein's starting assumption that envy is insidious is correct, things may not be this simple. Sincere self-honesty and self-analysis may not be strong enough to disclose hidden vice. Balanced judgment is irrelevant without such a disclosure.All in all, however, a good introduction to the green-eyed monster.

This is his smallest, slimmest book yet, part of a series called Seven Deadly Sins, and like all books Epstein, Envy was a delight to read! Envy in history, envy in literature, envy in pop culture, envy among friends, envy in oneself. Narrated in typical dry, Epstein wit, peppered with intellectual catch phrases. A rereading certainly beckons.