Kindle Unlimited
Unlimited reading. Over 4 million titles. Learn more
Read for Free
OR
Kindle Price: $11.39

Save $3.60 (24%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $13.62

Save: $6.13 (45%)

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs

Follow the author

Walter Benjamin
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Illuminations: Essays and Reflections Kindle Edition

by Walter Benjamin (Author), Hannah Arendt (Editor), Henry Zohn (Translator) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 213 ratings
See all formats and editions
Essays and reflections from one of the twentieth century’s most original cultural critics, with an introduction by Hannah Arendt.
 
Walter Benjamin was an icon of criticism, renowned for his insight on art, literature, and philosophy. This volume includes his views on Kafka, with whom he felt a close personal affinity; his studies on Baudelaire and Proust; and his essays on Leskov and Brecht’s epic theater. Illuminations also includes his penetrating study “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” an enlightening discussion of translation as a literary mode; and his theses on the philosophy of history.
 
Hannah Arendt selected the essays for this volume and introduces them with a classic essay about Benjamin’s life in a dark historical era. Leon Wieseltier’s preface explores Benjamin’s continued relevance for our times.

 Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) was a German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the  Frankfurt School of critical theory and was also greatly inspired by the Marxism of Bertolt Brecht and Jewish mysticism as presented by Gershom Scholem.​
 
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    307 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. Publication date
    October 23, 1968
  6. File size
    2027 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

ontemporary art and culture by one of the most original, critical and analytical minds of this century. Illuminations includes Benjamin's views on Kafka, with whom he felt the closest personal affinity, his studies on Baudelaire and Proust (both of whom he translated), his essays on Leskov and on Brecht's Epic Theater. Also included are his penetrating study on "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," an illuminating discussion of translation as a literary mode, and his thesis on the philosophy of history. Hannah Arendt selected the essays for this volume and prefaces them with a substantial, admirably informed introduction that presents Benjamin's personality and intellectual development, as well as his work and his life in dark times.Reflections the companion volume to this book, is also available in Schocken paperback.

About the Author

Walter Benjamin is recognized as one of the most acute analysts of literary and sociological phenomena of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He died in 1940.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004R1Q41M
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (October 23, 1968)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 23, 1968
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2027 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 307 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 213 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Walter Bendix Schonflies Benjamin (1892 -- 1940) was a German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and was also greatly inspired by the Marxism of Bertolt Brecht and Jewish mysticism as presented by Gershom Scholem.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
213 global ratings
Different publication and edition
3 Stars
Different publication and edition
Not the version depicted. Unhappy.Unsure if the translation is the same.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Ronnie Tyler
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb essays.
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2020
Verified Purchase
What a brilliant collection. Literature, Art, Politics and more are discussed in such a wonderfully clear manner. Great stuff.
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the effort
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2000
Verified Purchase
Walter Benjamin put everything he knew into everything he wrote. It all resonates. This makes for challenging reading - at times, it seems like what he is saying is simply too much at a tilt with everything one thinks one knows to seem comprehensible. Then, suddenly, one tilts, and the extraordinary reach, eloquence and power of this man's reading hits home. Benjamin is difficult in the only legitimate way - because what he is trying to say can be said no other way.
32 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Cody Franklin
4.0 out of 5 stars A Helpful Introduction to Benjamin
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
This was a pretty excellent (and challenging) survey of Benjamin's work, with included pieces mostly concerning storytelling and particular literary figures (e.g., Kafka, Proust, Leskov). I'd say this collection is particularly helpful in that it proceeds, as I read it, thematically. The editor's introductory piece isn't really worth reading--mostly just a reflection on Benjamin's "continuing importance", pretty standard (though I will say his criticisms of Benjamin, like his reluctance to give in to Scholem, amount more to complaints than critiques). In contrast, I found Arendt's essay incredibly enlightening. She relates not only much of the content of Benjamin's thought, but offers insight into his personal life (e.g., his experience in the Parisian Arcades, his collective impulses) that assists greatly in understanding the experience motivating some of Benjamin's analyses (e.g., of the crowd, of the collector, of the character of the flaneur). In some retellings, as in his chronic financial/employment troubles or the unfortunate coincidences leading to his suicide, a sense of melancholy or "bad luck" is almost palpable, particularly given Arendt's close relation to Benjamin.

As for the essays themselves, anyone who has read Benjamin is aware of how challenging the prose (if we may call it that) is. As Arendt notes in her introduction, Benjamin is a poetic thinker, and tends both to assume a fair amount of foreknowledge and employ sophisticated (and often extended) figurative devices, e.g., simile, to relate his points. Contrast this with the geometric prose of Spinoza and other modern philosophers, with their numbered axioms, definitions, propositions, etc. In his essay on Proust, for example, Benjamin likens the weight of scent in memory to the weight of the fisherman's net by which he gauges his catch, and sentences to the physical labor required to haul it up. There is also some evidence of his on-again-off-again Marxist tendencies (which embarrassing fact, combined with his ambivalence between this commitment and Zionism, is acknowledged in the introduction to the collection), as in his late essay on art modified by mechanical reproduction, plus the more obvious shoehorning of concepts like "class struggle" and "proletarianization". Nevertheless, this is a fantastic collection which ought to attract both old and new readers of Benjamin--I know I'll be buying Reflections, Illuminations' spiritual companion, and at least some of his standalone work.
26 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Juan Jose Morales
5.0 out of 5 stars The translation, a masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2010
Verified Purchase
The translation by Harry Zohn must be acknowledged as a masterpiece. Fitting in a work that contains Benjamin's essay "The task of the translator", I wonder if our author wrote in German as beautifully as has been rendered into English. If so Walter Benjamin must be counted as a great literary mind besides one of the finest intellectuals. The introduction by Hanna Arendt crowns the jewel of a book that speaks to everyman and for all times.
9 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Tom Paine
5.0 out of 5 stars Great writer-thinker
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2014
Verified Purchase
Good selection of Walter B's between-the-wars brilliant insights. In clear translations. Highly recommended to those interested in memory, Proust, and insights into a troubled political and social environment
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Danlin Zhang
3.0 out of 5 stars Kindle ver.: incorrect page numbers
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2019
Verified Purchase
On the kindle version: my electronic copy is complete and I enjoyed reading Benjamin’s essays. But the page number in the book is messed up. From the fourth essay (“Franz Kafka”) onward it is all incorrect. The book says that this essay is on p.109, and all the rest of the book is on p.110, which I suppose is a mistake in digitization. This poses great problem when I try to cite this electronic copy. Other than that the book is great.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Howard F. Mandel
5.0 out of 5 stars one of great thinkers of the 20th century.
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2017
Verified Purchase
A must read if your interested in philosophy.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
dolma
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book. Excellent introduction by Hannah Arendt.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 1, 2022
Verified Purchase
Great introduction to some of Benjamin’s essays.
Report
Corinna
5.0 out of 5 stars sehr gute Bewertung
Reviewed in Germany on July 8, 2014
Verified Purchase
Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit der Bestellung, alles hat reibungslos funktioniert. Das Produkt war wie geschildert und ist pünktlich bei mir angekommen.
Report
David
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic collection
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2021
Verified Purchase
Great introduction to an indespendable, brilliant, lovable and inaccesible fellow.
Report
tim whiting
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2015
Verified Purchase
Looks better than one way street. More readable
Report
giago
5.0 out of 5 stars What can you say?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2013
Verified Purchase
Walter Benjamin man. With an intro from Arendt. I mean. Wow. I mean. Ya know? Rather
Also saw someone say he was a member of the Frankfurt School in one of the reviews. He wasn't.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report