A MAN OF LETTERS : Selected Essays

Pritchett, a voracious reader whose appetite is infectious, can achieve in a brief review what many scholars fail to do in a full essay or lecture: he can whet your interest in a writer, making you want to look again, or for the first time, at Clarissa or The Heart of Midlothian. This is no small achievement. Still, though he makes good use of the telling detail or the provocative generalization, the artful mixture of anecdote, quotation, and judgment he offers is like an overabundant meal of delectable tidbits, enticing but not fully satisfying. It makes for good reviewing, but in book form there is a risk of monotony. The essays presented here extend from the early Forties to the present; they cover English, American, and Continental fiction from the 17th to the early 20th century. Alexander Gelley, Univ. of California, Irvine Copyright 1986 Cahners Business Information.