This book offers a witty explanation of why boredom both haunts and motivates the literary
imagination. Moving from Samuel Johnson to Donald Barthelme, from Jane Austen to Anita
Brookner, Spacks shows us at last how we arrived in a postmodern world where boredom is
the all-encompassing name we give our discontent. Her book, anything but boring, gives us
new insight into the cultural usefulness—and deep interest—of boredom as a state of mind.