Certain questions are basic to the human condition: how we imagine the world, and ourselves and others within it; how we confront the constraints of language and the limits of our own minds; and how we use imagination to give meaning to past experiences and to shape future ones. These are the questions James Boyd White addresses in The Edge of Meaning, exploring each through its application to great works of Western culture—Huckleberry Finn, the Odyssey, and the paintings of Vermeer among them. In doing so, White creates a deeply moving and insightful book and presents an inspiring conception of mind, language, and the essence of living.

James Boyd White is the Hart Wright Professor of Law, professor of English and adjunct professor of classical studies at the University of Michigan. His many books include The Legal Imagination, When Words Lose Their Meaning, and Acts of Hope, all published by the University of Chicago Press.