Jacques Barzun

With this book, Jacques Barzun pays what he describes as an "intellectual debt" to William James -- psychologist, philosopher, and, for Barzun, guide and mentor. Commenting on James's life, thought, and legacy, Barzun leaves us with a wise and civilized distillation of the great thinker's work. - Publisher.

Sherlock Holmes and the faithful Dr. Watson are featured here in a series of twelve of their earliest cases. They include A Scandal in Bohemia where, uniquely, Holmes is outwitted - by a beautiful woman; The Red-Headed League, which begins with a bizarre newspaper advertisement for red-haired men; and The Adventure of the Speckled Band, in which the great detective traces a sinister whistling sound to its lethal source. First published month by month...

Gulliver's Travels tells of the fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, an Englishman and ship's surgeon, who travels to the "several remote nations of the world." In the beginning, he becomes shipwrecked in the land of Lilliput, where the distressed inhabitants are only six inches tall. His second voyage takes him to Brobdingnag, where lives a race of giants. At Glubdubdrib, the Island of Sorcerers, he speaks with great men of the past and learns from...

In these 11 articles, written over a period of 40 years and originally published in journals such as Atlantic Monthly and Partisan Review, Barzun presents his ideas of good writing and how it can be achieved, and discusses the problems of editing and publishing. The collection includes an essay giving practical advice for dealing with writer's block, one on the pitfalls of translating, and one on Lincoln's prose style. Other topics include: Poe's...