Men, Women, and Books

Augustine Birrell brings together sharp, affectionate portraits of literary giants in this collection of essays that reads like literary conversation at its finest. With wit that still bites and insight that still surprises, Birrell turns his attention to the lives and legacies of writers who shaped the English literary tradition. He examines their peculiarities and contradictions, their strengths and self-deceptions, with the kind of humane intelligence that makes dead authors feel urgently alive. These are not academic assessments but personal meditations, the work of a man who clearly loved books and loved thinking about the people who wrote them. The essays possess that rare quality of making you want to immediately seek out authors you may have neglected, or to revisit familiar favorites with fresh eyes. For anyone who believes that literary criticism can be as pleasurable as fiction, this collection offers exactly that kind of delight.