And Even Now by Max Beerbohm


And Even Now
Title : And Even Now
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1421830868
ISBN-10 : 9781421830865
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 192
Publication : First published January 1, 1921

Yesterday I found in a cupboard an old, small, battered portmanteau which, by the initials on it, I recognised as my own property. The lock appeared to have been forced. I dimly remembered having forced it myself, with a poker, in my hot youth, after some

And Even Now Reviews

  • Graychin

    Max’s first collection of essays and articles was titled The Works of Max Beerbohm, which is just wonderful. This collection, published when he was middle-aged, is often considered his best. It is very good. Less biting, perhaps, than some of his earlier writing, it is still frequently hilarious while also being light-handedly thoughtful in the way that only a certain earned maturity can allow. I don’t know who to compare mid-career Max to, honestly, unless it’s to Charles Lamb. We enjoy in the music of Max’s language the same incredible fluency. We feel for his voice the same kind of personal attachment. Max is generally remembered as a caricaturist, a dandy, and (sometimes) a theater critic. He was also one of the best essay writers in English.

  • Sunrise

    Max Beerbohm is the kind of essayist who takes a leisurely stroll through life, examining the odds and ends that pass his way. He's often very funny, but never seems to be straining to make you laugh. It's more that he just has a humorous perspective on things.

    As the collection of essays wore on, though, his attitude started to fatigue me a bit. In a way he's kind of shallow: when he stops being so droll and tries to get serious, he's just sentimental. In a way, his humourous attitude just means treating everything as a game -- proving Oscar Wilde's remark that every sentimentalist is a cynic.

    So I finished the collection with a lower opinion of Beerbohm than when I started. Nevertheless, he has his virtues, and he can be very funny. I think I best enjoyed the first essay, "A Relic," which is about a youthful attempt of his to write a story.

  • Cheryl

    Read for the 'as witty as Twain but happier' essays, and the one more earnest piece.

  • Lucy

    Fabulous collection of satirical essays. He's a brilliant caricaturist, even eliciting a remark by Wilde in
    The Importance of Being Earnest.

  • Avis Black

    Beerbohm is somewhat patchy, but his best essays are quite good.

  • Craig

    Joseph Epstein likes this book so I thought I'd try it.