A Gathering of Leaves

Extravagances and Ephemera

David Bentley Hart

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9780268107185
  9780268211240
• eBook ISBN:
  9780268211264
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Literary Essays

A lively and wide-ranging collection from David Bentley Hart, A Gathering of Leaves invites readers to rediscover the sheer joy of reading.

David Bentley Hart brings together reflections on everything from literature and music to baseball and tortoises in his newest book. The pieces roam freely in subject and tone—sometimes serious, sometimes playful—but are united by Hart's distinctive voice: witty, attentive, and unafraid of digression.

Rather than advancing a single argument or theme, Hart lets each essay follow its own path. Short notes sit alongside longer meditations; close readings give way to cultural commentary or unexpected enthusiasms. Hart focuses on the joys of style, observation, and thought in motion. A Gathering of Leaves is a book for readers who enjoy the art of the word—writing that informs and entertains, wanders and returns, and reminds us why reading itself remains a pleasure.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Volume Dedication
• Volume Epigraphs
• Contents
• A Brief Introduction
• 1. Non Compos: Extracts from the Court Record
• 2. America’s Team, or The New York Yankees Are a Moral Abomination
• 3. On Writing English Prose: Ideals, Exemplars, Rules
• 4. Birthday Greetings for Marcel
• 5. Goethe’s “Orientalism”
• 6. The Georgia Peach
• 7. Nabokovian Ruminations: Four Notes
• 8. The Peach Blossom Spring: A Translation (and apologia)
• 9. The Saint James Bible
• 10. Encomium for a Tortoise
• 11. By Sea-Girls Wreathed
• 12. Nothing at the Bottom: Four Notes on AI
• 13. Wings of Light: On Translating Proust
• 14. La règle du jeu: Five Notes on the Great American Pastime
• 15. Organism and Paradigm: Six Notes on Mind and Matter
• 16. Frank: The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole
• 17. Revenants: Five Notes on Photography and the Deep Past
• 18. O Divine Monkey!
• 19. Echoes from the Past: Four Notes Mostly on the Beatles
• 20. On Yūrei, Jibakurei, and Phone Booths: Four Notes on Ghostly Japan
• 21. A Tale Told by an Idiot
• 22. The Ethos of the Ants
• 23. Mr Toad and the Judge: On the Relative Merits of Kenneth Grahame and Cormac McCarthy
• 24. Thoughts on The Hindus: Wendy Doniger and the Rise of Indian Nationalism
• 25. “Dream-Journey to Mount Tian-Mu: A Sigh of Farewell”
• 26. Noli Episcopari: Four Notes on Political Power
• 27. Dispatches from the Antipodes
• 28. The Net of Indra
• 29. The Cunning of History: Seven Notes on Chance and Fate
• 30. Scattered Reflections: On Themes Cinematic and Televisual
• 31. Dispatches from the Flowering Fenlands
• 32. The State of Exception
• 33. Slouching Towards DC
• 34. L’Ébauche d’un homme civilisé: On Paul Valéry
• 35. Neither Wilt Thou Suffer Thine Holy One to See Corruption
• 36. On the Feast of Stephen: Six Notes on Boxing Day
• 37. Gods of the Wayside
• 38. Leave at Once, or I Shall Set the Dogs on You: Mon Doppelgänger, Moi-Même