Excerpt from Heir To The Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"My first requirement," Mitwisser said, "is your freedom to leave this place."

"I can do that," I said. "I'd like to."

"It is what I would like that is at issue. And what I would like is a certain engagement with—I will not say ideas. But you must be able to understand what I ask of you."

"I've done most of a year of college."

"Less than Gymnasium. What is this nonsense you write here about a nanny? How is this responsive?"

"Well, your ad mentioned children, so I thought—"

"You thought mistakenly. You should know that my work has to do precisely with opposition to the arrogance of received interpretation. Received interpretation is often enough simply error. Why should I not speak everywhere of my children? There is no context or relation in which they do not have a part. That is why your obligations will on occasion include them—but your primary duty is to me. And you will try not to disturb my poor wife."

It seemed, then, that I was hired—though I still did not know for what.

And it was not until a long time afterward that Anneliese confided that there had been (even in that period of crisis unemployment) no other applicants.

This is the complete text of chapter 1, pages 1-5 of Heir to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick.  Copyright 2004 by Cynthia Ozick.  All rights reserved.