On Purpose: Ten Lessons on the Meaning of Life by Ben Hutchinson

Ten brief essays on how reading and meaningfully engaging with literature can help us live better, more purposeful lives.

How do we live successfully?

How do we live fully?

Identifying the meaning of life and where we are heading preoccupies all of us at some stage or another. Who better to help us articulate this sense of direction than the most articulate people among us? Writers and thinkers, Ben Hutchinson suggests in this sparkling new book, help us reflect on purpose.

Interweaving his own (mis-)adventures with those of major authors such as T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and R.M. Rilke, Hutchinson proposes ten ways in which reading and writing encourage us to ask difficult questions, project our minds into the past and future, and see ourselves and others differently. Engaging and aphoristic, this book is for anyone who finds themselves wondering how to live more mindfully, more forcefully – more fully.

Ben Hutchinson is currently Professor of European Literature at Kent University. He writes for the TLS, Observer and Literary Review, and has published six books with the Oxford University Press, Reaktion and Chicago UP, which have been widely translated. He has lectured at institutions across the world, including at Oxford, Heidelberg, Harvard, Jerusalem, and the ENS Paris. He is also an Honorary Secretary of the British Comparative Literature Association.Ben Hutchinson is currently Professor of European Literature at Kent University. He writes for the TLS, Observer and Literary Review, and has published six books with the Oxford University Press, Reaktion and Chicago UP, which have been widely translated. He has lectured at institutions across the world, including at Oxford, Heidelberg, Harvard, Jerusalem, and the ENS Paris. He is also an Honorary Secretary of the British Comparative Literature Association.