The Incomparable Max
MAINLY ON THE AIR. By Max Beerbohm. * William Heinemann Ltd. T°O few men is it given to achieve such signal distinction in both art and letters as has Max Beerbohm. His caricatures are famous for their wit-carica-tures, incidentally, of the famous dead as well as of the notorious living. » In literature he is known as a writer of exquisite. fiction and essays, both sharpened by touches of satire and graced
by a mellow good humour which contradicts any idea that their author is ill-natured. The present volume, a collection of recent essays and broadcast addresses, is delightful evidence that the peculiar quacity of Max’s mind-his inability to rejoice with the fool in his folly, his French ‘clarity and his Eng‘lish fantasy — has not been altered by the advance of old age. Traces there are in these pages of .a certain wistfulness, a hankering after the spacious-
ness of other days when an old goat could sit undisturbed in the sun in Piccadilly, and one politician could be exhilaratingly rude to another. Max Beerbohm, however, is not a soured praiser of times past. He still richly enjoys life, and his latest book will add to our enjoyment of it. His management of words indeed is masterly. It is rare to-day to find.a writer who is so much
at ease with himself. ~
David
Hall
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 396, 24 January 1947, Page 17
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225The Incomparable Max New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 396, 24 January 1947, Page 17
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