Acknowledgements
Introduction
 
SIR FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626)
Of Truth
Of Revenge
Of Boldness
Of Innovations
Of Masques and Triumphs
 
SIR THOMAS OVERBURY (1581-1613)
A Chambermaid
A Fair and Happy Milkmaid
 
JOHN EARLE (?1601-65)
An Antiquary
A Good Old Man
A Pot-Poet
 
OWEN FELLTHAM (?1602-68)
How the Distempers of these Times should affect wise Men
 
SIR THOMAS BROWNE (1605-82)
On Dreams
 
THOMAS FULLER (1608-61)
Of Anger
 
SAMUEL BUTLER (1612-80)
A Degenerate Noble
 
JEREMY TAYLOR (1613-67)
Of Charity, or the Love of God
 
ABRAHAM COWLEY (1618-67)
Of Avarice
 
JOHN DRIDDEN (1631-1700)
‘Chaucer’ (from Preface to the Fables)
 
JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745)
Good Manners and Good Breeding
A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick
 
JOSEPH ADDISON (1672-1719)
Thoughts in Westminster Abbey
The Royal Exchange
Sir Roger in Westminster Abbey
Sir Roger at Vauxhall
 
SIR RICHARD STEELE (1672-1729)
On Recollections of Childhood
 
LORD CHESTERFIELD (1694-1773)
Upon Affectation
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-90)
The Levee
 
HENRY FIELDING (1707-54)
The Poor and the Betters
 
SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-84)
Dignity and Uses of Biography
Conversation
Debtor’s Prisons (1)
Debtor’s Prisons (2)
 
DAVID HUME (1711-76)
Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature
 
OLIVER GOLDSMITH (?1730-74)
On Dress
A Little Great Man
On National Prejudices
 
JAMES BOSWELL (1740-95)
On War
 
CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834)
Dream Children
from On Some of the Old Actors
 
WILLIAM HAZLITT (1778-1830)
On the Pleasure of Hating
Brummelliana
 
LEIGH HUNT (1784-1859)
Getting Up on Cold Mornings
 
THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785-1859)
The Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth
 
THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881)
from Signs of the Times
 
LORD MACAULAY (1800-59)
from Lord Clive
 
SIR HENRY TAYLOR (1800-86)
On Secrecy
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN (1801-90)
Secular Knowledge not a Principe of Action
 
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-82)
The Conservative
 
NATHANIE HAWTHORNE (1804-62)
The Haunted Mind
 
JOHN STUAT MILL (1806073)
‘Bentham and Coleridge’ (from Coleridge)
 
CHARLES DICKENS (1812-70)
City of London Churches
 
WILLIAM MAKKPEACE THACKERAY (1811-63)
Autour de mon Chapeau
 
ANTHONY TROLLOPE (1815-82)
The Plumber
 
HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-62)
Night and Moonlight
 
JAMES ANTHONY FROUD (1818-94)
The Philosophy of Christianity
 
GEORGE ELIOT (1819-80)
Thomas Carlyle
 
MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-88)
Heine and the Philistines (from Heinrich Heine)
 
T. H. HUXLEY (1825-95)
from Evolution and Ethics
 
WALTER BAGEHOT (1826-77)
Dull Government
 
MARK RUTHERFORD (1831-1913)
Talking about our Troubles
 
SIR LESLIE STEPHEN (1832-1902)
On Knowing what Gives us Pleasure
 
MARK TWAIN (1835-62)
Thoughts of God
 
WALTER PATER (1839-94)
Sandro Botticelli
 
W. H. HUDSON (1841-1922)
Wasps
 
AMBROSE BIERCE (1842-?1914)
Disintroductions
 
WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910)
The Ph.D. Octopus
 
HENRY JAMES (1843-1916)
from London
 
ALICE MEYNELL (1847-1922)
Under the Early Stars
 
RICHARD JEFFERIES (1848-87)
The Acorn-Gatherer
 
ROBERT LOUIS STVENSON (1850-94)
Aes Triplex
 
OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900)
‘The True Critic’ (from The Critic as Artist)
 
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (1856-1950)
Sir George Grove
 
JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)
The Censor of Plays
 
JAMES G. HUNEKER (1860-1921)
A Visit to Walt Whitman
 
JOHN JAY CHAPMAN (1862-1933)
William James
 
GEORGE SANTAYANA (1863-1952)
Intellectual Ambition
Intuitive Morality
 
ARTHUR SYMONS (1865-1945)
Cordova
 
HILAIRE BELLOC (1870-1953)
On the Departure of a Guest
 
BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970)
On Being Modern-Mindd
 
SIR MAX BEERBOHM (1872-1956)
‘A Clergyman’
 
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL (1873-1965)
The Dream
 
G. K. CHESTERTON (1874-1936)
A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls
On Sandals and Simplicity
 
SIR DESMOND MCCARTHY (1879-1952)
Invective
 
E. M. FORSTER (1879-1970)
My Own Centenary
 
LYTTON STRACHEY (1880-1956)
The Libido for the Ugly
Funeral March
 
ROSE MACAULAY (1881-1958)
Evening Parties
 
VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941)
Harriette Wilson
The Death of the Moth
 
JAMES STEPHENS (1882-1950)
Finnegans Wake
 
G. M. YOUNG (1882-1959)
The Greatest Victorian
 
D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930)
Insouciance
 
MARIANNE MOORE (1887-1972)
What There is to See at the Zoo
 
T. S. ELIOT (1888-1965)
Marie Lloyd
 
SIR LEWIS NAMIER (1888-1960)
Symmetry and Repetition
 
KATHERINE ANNE PORTER (1890-1980)
The Necessary Enemy
 
REBECCA WEST (1892-1983)
The Sterner Sex
 
JOSEPH WOOD KRUTCH (1893-1970)
The Colloid and the Crystal
 
J. B. S. HALDANE (1892-1964)
On Being the Right Size
 
ALDOUS HUSLEY (1894-1963)
Meditation on the Moon
 
JAMES THURBER (1894-1961)
My Own Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage
 
J. B. PRIESTLEY (1894-1984)
The Toy Farm
 
ROBERT GRAVES (1895-1985)
The Case for Xanthippe
 
EDMUND WILSON (1895-1972)
A Preface to Persius
 
E. B. WHITE (1899-1985)
About Myself
 
V. S. PRITCHETT (1900-97)
Our Half-Hogarth
 
CYRIL CONNOLLY (1903-74)
The Anti-Lion
 
GEORGE ORWELL (1903-50)
Reflections on Gandhi
 
EVELYN WAUGH (1903-66)
Well-Informed-Circles … and How to Move in Them
 
GRAHAM GREENE (1904-91
The Lost Childhood
 
LIONEL TRILLING (1905-75)
Adams at Ease
 
SIR JOHN BETJEMAN (1906-84)
A New Westminster
 
SIR WILLIAM EMPSON (1906-84)
The Faces of Buddha
 
LOREN EISELEY (1907-77)
The Snout
 
JACQUES BARZUN (1907-   )
What If ---? English versus German and French
 
MAURICE RICHARDSON (1907-78)
In Search of Nib-Joy
 
M. F. K. FISHER (1908-92)
Young Hunger
 
SIR ISAIAH BERLIN (1909-98)
Churchill and Roosevelt (from Winston Churchill in 1940)
 
LEWIS THOMAS (1913-93)
To Err is Human
 
RANDALL JARRELL (1914-65)
Bad Poets
 
H. R. TREVOR-ROPER (1914-   )
Thomas Hobbes
 
ELIZABETH HARDWICK (1916-   )
The Apotheosis of Martin Luther King
 
ROBERT WARSHOW (1917-55)
The Gangster as Tragic Hero
 
RICHARD COBB (1917-96)
The Homburg Hat
 
CONOR CRUISE O’BRIEN (1917-   )
The People’s Victor
 
PAULINE KAEL (1919-   )
Movies on Television
 
D. J. ENRIGHT (1920-   )
The Marquis and the Madame
 
PHILIP LARKIN (1922085)
The Savage Seventh
 
RAYNER BANHAM (1922-88)
The Crisp at the Crossroads
 
JAMES BALDWIN (1924-87)
Stranger in the Village
 
GORE VIDAL (1925-   )
Robert Graves and the Twelve Caesars
 
JAN MORRIS (1926-   )
La Paz
 
DAN JACOBSON (1929-   )
A Visit from Royalty
 
P. J. KAVANAGH (1931-   )
Is It Alas, Yorick?
 
V. S. NAIPAUL (1932-   )
Columbus and Crusoe
 
JOHN UPDIKE (1932-   )
The Bankrupt Man
 
JOHN DIDION (1934-   )
At the Dam
 
JOSEPH EPSTEIN (1937-   )
About Face
 
CLIVE JAMES (1939-   )
A Blizzard of Tiny Kisses