An rarer copy of a cornerstone collection from Walter Benjamin, bringing together some of his most influential essays on art, literature, history, translation, mechanical reproduction and modernity. 

Includes major pieces such as “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” “Unpacking My Library,” “The Storyteller,” and “The Task of the Translator.” It is one of those collections that feels less like a set of essays and more like an intellectual toolkit someone dropped down a stairwell: fragments everywhere, all of them sharp.

Essential for readers of critical theory, literary criticism, media theory, Marxism, modernism, art theory, cultural studies, translation theory, and anyone trying to understand why the twentieth century started looking at images and immediately became unwell.

Fontana paperback. First published in Great Britain in 1970; this copy is a second impression, February 1977. Translated by Harry Zohn, with introduction by Hannah Arendt. Used condition with visible cover rubbing, creasing and edge wear; internally readable and intact from what’s shown.