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  • Published: 2 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9780143780052
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $22.99

The Pleasures of Leisure




Robert Dessaix’s guide to work and play in the 21st century.

‘Almost everybody I know has done it at least once. Some of my friends indulge on a regular basis. Women seem especially susceptible to giving it a go. I’ve been at it since I was at least five. What on earth do we imagine we’re doing?’

Many of us lack a talent for leisure. We are working longer hours as we consume more than ever before, and as new forms of technology erode the work-life balance. And yet, we often feel that only work can give real meaning to our existence. In a world where time is money, what is the value of walking without purpose, or socialising without networking, or travelling for reasons other than our jobs?

Robert Dessaix lays out the dilemma that modern Westerners face, but never in a didactic or dogmatic way. He writes that leisure allows us the masters of our own time. It allows us to freely choose to do something pleasurable, for its own sake or to deepen our sense of who we are as human beings. How can we reclaim our right to ‘rest well’, and to loaf, groom, nest and play?

In his trademark personal and anecdotal style, Robert Dessaix guides us through the history of leisure. As with all of his writing, this book will be full of wise lessons and intellectual games, but above all, it will be a lively and engaging conversation with his readers.

  • Published: 2 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9780143780052
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Robert Dessaix

Robert Dessaix is a writer of fiction, autobiography and the occasional essay. From 1985 to 1995, after teaching Russian language and literature for many years at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales, he presented the weekly Books and Writing program on ABC Radio National. In more recent years he has also presented radio series on Australian public intellectuals and great travellers in history, as well as regular programs on language.

His best-known books, all translated into several European languages, are his autobiography A Mother's Disgrace; the novels Night Letters and Corfu; a collection of essays and short stories (and so forth); and the travel memoirs Twilight of Love and Arabesques. In 2012 he published the collection of originally spoken pieces As I Was Saying, and in 2014 the meditation What Days Are For. A full-time writer since 1995, Robert Dessaix lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

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Praise for The Pleasures of Leisure

A terrifically lively and engaging conversation

The Book Club, ABC

This is a provocative and educative book and, to my mind, his best yet. There is the subtlety and sonorousness of the thought and language, the lightly worn erudition, the high-mindedness cloaked in self-deprecation, and a generous consideration of how an individual might live a larger life than the one ordained ... It takes a lifetime to understand the transcendent nature of frivolity, but who has that much time? We can always dream, and there is no better place to start than here.

Helen Elliott, The Monthly

Quietly outspoken and as companionable as ever, Dessaix draws freely on literature, film and his own memories, observations and experiences. The Pleasures of Leisure is an excellent discussion of the topic and also an invitation to the reader to indulge gainfully for a couple of hours or so in the activity the book illustrates so entertainingly and recommends with such persuasiveness.

Simon Caterson, Australian

In The Pleasures of Leisure, Robert Dessaix extols the virtues of doing less, with compelling insight and humour. He weaves an argument that we’ve lost the capacity to enjoy idleness and leisure. That, despite advances in science and technology designed to save us time, the unintended result has been that we have very little vacant time and no idea what to do with it. The argument rings true, and Dessaix is commanding with his incisive quips ... His voice is by turns cool and charming, perfunctory and punchy, intimate and witty, and the book is littered with philosophical and literary references on the subject at hand ... A revealing and funny book

Readings

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To the seaside

From The Pleasures of Leisure, Robert Dessaix examines our beach-lounging tendencies.