Book description
The finest and most penetrating essayist this country has produced
this century ... there is not a dull page in this civilized and witty
book.' - The Irish Times A third volume of essays - autobiographical,
polemical, political, exploratory - by the most distinctive Irish
writer of the age, in the highest tradition of Swift and Shaw. Hubert
Butler's remarkable consistency of vision and clarity of mind make him
unique among Irish essayists in reconciling diversity of content with
unity of impression. The focus of his writing is local, its force and
application universal. Like Chekhov, he is an abiding humanist whose
work evinces an unsurpassed moral and spiritual integrity. 'The writer
for whom I feel instinctive love - not just for the work, but for the
human being who thought and shaped it - is Hubert Butler. ... When the
first collection of his articles and columns and lectures was
published in 1985 he was 84 years old. But by the time of Butler's
death in 1991, readers throughout Europe and America were asking in
amazement why he had not been part of their common culture before.' -
Neal Ascherson, Independent on Sunday 'A late and luscious windfall.
Imagine an impossible combination of Flann O'Brien and Isaiah Berlin.
Well, Butler comes close.' - Ferdinand Mount, Spectator 'A humanistic
essayist in the tradition of Montaigne, Butler also belongs in the
company of George Orwell and the American Dwight Macdonald:
political-literary-moral critics for whom we lack an exact word. He
was spared writing about everyday politics, but he discussed the
tragedy of the twentieth century with exceptional clarity and depth.'
- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Times Literary Supplement
