This is the first book of essays by the brilliant American critic and scholar, F.W. Dupee. Yeats, Dickens, La Roche-foucauld, Kafka, Robert Lowell, Max Beerbohm, James Agee, Petronius, Vladimir Nabokov, Proust, Mann, Lawrence, Chekhov, Charles Chaplin, Sir Richard Burton- These are a few of the artists whose most characteristic work is examined keenly by Mr. Depee’s experienced eye, and whose essence is captured in his prose.

As a commentator on literature Mr. Dupee has consciously followed the precept that a critic’s first job is to convey an idea of the special “quality” of a given book or author, whatever it is that seems to make the book precisely what it is. When Mr. Dupee disapproves of a work it is because the quality does not seem genuine or individual but borrowed, “literary” in a bad sense, determined by the fashion of the moment, or otherwise derivative. Thus, seeking the special quality of a piece of writing inevitably involves a judgment of its relative worth. In an age in which so much is written and published, a clear standard of judgment is essential for critical writing and for the culture as a whole.

F.W. Dupee, an editor of Partisan Review during its early years, is Professor of English at Columbia University, author of Henry James in the American Men of Letters Series, and editor of Great Short French Novels and The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens.

This vintage edition was published in 1984, it is in Very Good condition with some rubbing on front cover.