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A collection of critical essays that examine how literature reveals and disguises moral questions, distinguishing high art literature from the literature of life; the author interrogates controversial aspects of notable figures and works (Nietzsche, Casanova, Zola, Huysmans, St. Francis among others), argues for reclaiming simple eternal facts amid contemporary self-congratulation, and affirms personal, hard-won creeds rather than claiming universal truths. Combining biographical detail, psychological reading, and moral critique, the essays privilege the questionable and aim to stimulate readers toward forming their own convictions.
[10] Thus one learns from the newspapers that the offence of wearing sandals has involved ejection even from so great a centre of enlightenment as the Reading Room of the British Museum, while the mere assertion that an actress appeared on the stage with bare legs was so damaging that it involved an action for slander, a public apology, and the payment of “a substantial sum” in compensation.
THE WALTER SCOTT PRESS, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.