I found this fine word this morning in the New York Times story about William Styron entitled Styron Visible: Naming the Evils that Humans Do, by Michiko Kitutani.
Oeuvre (Å-vruh) [French uvre from Old French uevre, work, from Latin opera, plural of opus, work]
n.
- A work of art.
- the works of a writer, painter, composer or the like, taken as a whole.
- any one of the works of a writer, painter, composer or the like.
Usage: Although Mr. Styron's oeuvre seems somewhat slender in retrospect, each of his major novels built upon its predecessor's achievements, working variations on earlier ideas, while amplifying them throughout the echo chamber of history.
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I have some terribly sad news. William Styron, one of my favorite writers, died yesterday from pneumonia in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
I am leaving on Thursday (19 November), and still have a mountain of books to give away. I could give them to NYPL or I could give them to you (if you pay postage). I prefer to give them to you, but you have to act quickly because I have tons of things I need to take care of before I leave.
Posthumous Novels by Vladimir Nabokov, David Foster Wallace and Ralph Ellison - WSJ.com
Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007.