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A series of critical portraits and reflective studies of literary and artistic figures, examining their styles, temperaments, and philosophical influences. Ransome considers authors such as Aloysius Bertrand, Alphonse Daudet, François Coppée, Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Pater, Remy de Gourmont, and Yone Noguchi, and explores themes including art for art's sake, art's relation to morality and nature, and distinctions of technique and expression. Combining biographical sketch, close reading, and aesthetic argument, the pieces balance appreciation of craft with critical interrogation of artistic aims and cultural context.
Of the Essays in this book, “Art for Life’s Sake” appeared in The English Review; “The Poetry of Yone Noguchi,”1 “Remy de Gourmont,” and “Aloysius Bertrand” in The Fortnightly Review; “Kinetic and Potential Speech,” in The Oxford and Cambridge Review. The papers on Daudet and Coppée were prefixed to collections of stories by these writers: I thank the publishers, Messrs. T. C. and E. C. Jack, for permission to reproduce them here.