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Autobiography: A Very Short IntroductionAutobiography is one of the most popular of written forms. From Casanova to Benjamin Franklin to the Kardashians, individuals throughout history have recorded their own lives and experiences. These personal writings are central to the work of literary critics, philosophers, historians, and psychologists, who have found in autobiographies from across the centuries not only an understanding of the ways in which lives have been lived, but the most
Autobiography is one of the most popular of written forms. From Casanova to Benjamin Franklin to the Kardashians, individuals throughout history have recorded their own lives and experiences. These personal writings are central to the work of literary critics, philosophers, historians, and psychologists, who have found in autobiographies from across the centuries not only an understanding of the ways in which lives have been lived, but the most fundamental accounts of what it means to be a self in the world. In this Very Short Introduction Laura Marcus defines what we mean by "autobiography," and considers its relationship with similar literary forms such as memoirs, journals, letters, diaries, and essays. Analyzing the core themes in autobiographical writing, such as confession, conversion and testimony, romanticism and the journeying self; Marcus discusses the autobiographical consciousness (and the roles played by time, memory and identity), and considers the relationship between psychoanalysis and autobiography. Exploring the themes of self-portraiture and performance, Marcus also discusses the ways in which fiction and autobiography have shaped each other. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 10/01/2018
ISBN: 9780199669240
Pages: 168
Weight: 0.30lbs
Size: 6.80h x 4.20w x 0.40d
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4.9 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Very good!
Format: Paperback
Book worth gold I love it! I will read it again! I recommend you buy it! Open your mind and make finances 🧠✨️
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Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2026
★★★★★ 4
8.5 de 10
Format: Kindle
Lenguaje solo para profesionales y no para principiantes. Lo demás es perfecto con 4 estrellas ya que hasta lloré 3 veces ...
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Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Interesting
Format: Paperback
Product with very good quality, its description matches the website.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2026
★★★★★ 5
A wonderful primer for those discovering the amazing world of generative AI
Format: Paperback, Format: Paperback
Somewhere in the past year, ChatGPT has gone from "cool, interesting, amusing" to a massively valuable work assistant capable of writing Python scripts, analysing data, and doing lots, lots, more. The key to this? The rapid evolution of OpenAI's GPT models and making my first forays into prompt engineering.
If I thought I was getting good, though, this book took me reminded me that I'm just scratching the surface. Halfway through the first chapter I was already furiously scribbling notes in the margins for what I could do better with my prompt writing and by the end of the text I felt like I had gotten a very good grounding - not just in GPTs specifically but in the bigger picture of how these hugely powerful tools were trained and came to maturity.
I imagine that few will argue with my assertion that there is lots of hyperbole and "noise" in the AI space right now which, as ever, makes it hard to pick out the signal from the noise. Which is precisely why I sought out an O'Reilly title and I'm very glad that I did.
Thorough, excellent, and I hope that this edition will be the first of many. As this rapidly maturing field scales and matures I think that prompt engineering will be an essential discipline to master. Pick up this text to get a good foothold on things.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2024
★★★★★ 4
Understanding AI prompts as a science
Format: Audiobook
Prompt engineering is the art and science of finding the right words to generate the right responses from artificial intelligence (AI). It's becoming a skill in-demand in today's workplaces. It's also becoming an essential skill for life. To understand prompt engineering, you must understand how AI tools understand their inputs. This book explains that to you in many forms.
It covers prompting as it intersects all the major AI disciplines, like general prompts (as in a ChatBot), fine-tuning, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). It also introduces how prompting intersects a couple of image-generation tools.
As a scientist, I appreciate the theoretical approach to these practical matters. Too many people are hacks at AI these days, and any technical understanding can rapidly advance an individual's effectiveness. Prompt engineering is often made fun of as a "soft" topic, but as this book demonstrates, it intersects all the major AI areas. Presumably less garbage in means less garbage out. This book shows how you can make that take place.
As typical for O'Reilly materials, this book appeals to people who desire an intermediate-to-advanced understanding of how AI works. It's not for the casual user. Anyone technical involved in professional knowledge generation using AI can benefit from understanding the dynamics "under the hood." It's a good, though perhaps not ground-breaking, textbook for those of us unable to take a class in the subject. Prompt engineering may be a soft topic to many, but books like this ground the field in the science that can make or break a digital or software product.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2025