A collection of intimate conversational essays addressed to a longtime friend ranges across literary criticism, social observation, and personal reflection. The writer considers responsibilities of parents and critics, evaluates contemporary novelists and literary tendencies, and debates marriage, happiness, and the inner life. Separate sections examine the education and careers of modern women, episodes of urban and provincial life framed by mythic and comic allusions, and culminating reflections on religious experience and moral seriousness. The tone blends cultivated wit, concrete anecdote, and earnest moral inquiry.