Notes on Novelists, with Some Other Notes

A lamp's glow falls across a desk scattered with ink-stained manuscripts and the faces of writers-some celebrated, some half-forgotten-emerge from the shadows of literary history. Within these pages, the era of Victorian and modernist writers is not merely chronicled but brought into sharp, intimate relief through the discerning eyes of one of literature's most astute observers. Each essay is a keenly wrought act of literary analysis, offering both affectionate scrutiny and unsparing honest...