Hospitality and Treachery in Western Literature

(Yale University Press) The relationship between host and guest has played a crucial role in Western literature, ranging from Christ’s Last Supper to Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In a wide spectrum of works, Heffernan examines the dynamic between givers and takers of hospitality and what guests and hosts do for — as well as to — each other. Heffernan is a professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College and founding editor of Review 19, an online review of new books on 19th-century English and American literature.