Yet Again

Max Beerbohm's essay collection sparkles with urbane wit, self-awareness, and a mischievous eye for the oddness hidden in ordinary life. In "The Fire," he turns a domestic hearth into something primal and almost dangerous, a living force that recalls childhood wonder, humanity's cave-dwelling past, and the uneasy truth that we are still drawn to destruction as well as comfort. Fire becomes at once a symbol of warmth, moral cleansing, and the English longing for sun, shelter, and seasonal relief, while Beerbohm deftly contrasts private intimacy with the impersonal future of regulated heat. Elsewhere, he finds comedy in the rituals of farewell, from awkward station goodbyes to a brilliantly improbable business that hires professional English "friends" to see Americans off. The collection also darkens into suspense in "A Memory of a Midnight Express," where a late-night stranger awakens the narrator's imagination into terror. Throughout, Beerbohm exposes the human appetite for spectacle, excess, and the thrill of the unprecedented. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.