Famed critic Terry Eagleton takes a serious if often amusing look at the meaning of life. Eagleton first examines how centuries of thinkers and writers--from Marx and Schopenhauer to Shakespeare, Sartre, and Beckett--have responded to the ultimate question of meaning. He suggests, however, that it is only in modern times that the question has become problematic. But instead of tackling it head-on, many of us cope with the feelings of meaninglessness in our lives by filling them with everything from football to fundamentalism. He argues instead that the meaning of life is a matter of living in a certain way--a certain quality, depth, abundance and intensity of life.
