A selection of works from one of the most original cultural critics of the twentieth century--as selected by Hannah Arendt and including a classic essay of her own about Walter Benjamin's life and philosophy. "There has been no more original, no more serious critic and reader in our time. "--George Steiner An icon of criticism, Walter Benjamin was renowned for his insights on art, literature, and philosophy. This volume includes his views on Kafka, with whom he felt a close personal affinity; his studies on Baudelaire and Proust; and his essays on Leskov and on Brecht's epic theater. Illuminations includes two of Benjamin's best-known, deeply enlightening essays, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and "Theses on the Philosophy of History, " as well as Hannah Arendt's own essay about her subject's life as a German-born Jew during a dark era.