And Even Now

Max Beerbohm's essays turn memory, manners, and literary ambition into a sparkling comic art. An old fan fragment in a cupboard revives a moonlit scene in Normandy, where the narrator's fascination with a quarrel between M. Joumand and Mlle. Angélique becomes a meditation on how a tiny relic can spark a whole fiction, and how imitation, irony, and self-doubt shape the making of a writer. From there the book widens into satirical play: a railway reader discovers a handbook of tactful letters for every awkward crisis, only to have its sweetness undercut by wickedly funny alternatives involving blackmail, bad debts, and savage rebukes. Elsewhere, mock correspondence skewers politics, education, marriage, and social pretension with brisk, fearless wit. Beerbohm also reflects on memorial statues, hospitality, and the ideal guest, tracing the comic gradations between parasite, churl, and civilized company. The collection culminates in a subtle study of hero-worship, arguing that greatness is most powerfully felt indoors, in the intimate presence of the famous, where setting deepens reverence and memory. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.