The collection gathers lively critical sketches and essays on musicians, singers, composers, painters, and literary figures, blending biographical anecdotes, formal analysis, and cultural commentary. Huneker profiles performers—especially a celebrated soprano—examining how temperament, versatility, and stagecraft shape interpretation, and he discusses composers and writers with attention to style, modernist tendencies, and aesthetic controversies. Interspersed are reflections on taste, criticism, and the performer's public persona, presented in a conversational, impressionistic voice that moves between affectionate portraiture and sharp caustic observation.