Customer Reviews

Seven Men

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This is not a review of Seven Men, which is a wonderful book, well worth reading. Instead, this is a review of the Dodo Press edition of the book. Hard to believe, but it is not a complete version of the book, and is missing two chapters! It's not "Seven Men" but instead, just"Five Men!" Definitely read this book, but purchase the NYRBC edition instead -- it's actually the complete book!

I first read "Seven Men" a few years back when Harold Bloom listed it as essential reading in his book on the Western canon.

The book consists of short fictional portraits of various characters in the world of Edwardian arts and letters. Beerbohm was a satirist with a nimble touch -- he had the ability to poke fun at the pretensions of the art world while maintaining a gentle, bemused humanism.

Sir Max seemed to view the vanity and foibles of human nature not so much with scorn as with an endless amusement, and reading any of his essays or parodies or satires is like spending the evening chatting with a wise and witty friend.

Beerbohm once wrote, "How many charming talents have been spoiled by the instilled desire to do 'important' work! Some people are born to lift heavy weights. Some are born to juggle with golden balls." Beerbohm was an admitted juggler, and yet his seemingly "light" work is ultimately more insightful than most so-called serious projects. And often much funnier.

Beerbohm was also quite a caricaturist, and his theater reviews (many out of print) are still great to read all these decades later.

Get hold of this book and start off with the classics "Enoch Soames," the story of a third-rate poet who, convinced of his own greatness, makes a deal with the Devil in order to travel to the future to enjoy his posthumous success (with comic results), and "Savonarola Brown," a hilarious sketch of a frustrated playwright and his great "unfinished" opus.

Beerbohm's contemporaries referred to him as "the incomparable Max," and it's a title that fits. I wish I could've met him.

Bernard Shaw called Beerbohm "the divine Max," and this collection of short pieces will tell you why. The book consists of short character sketches of six men (Beerbohm is the ever present seventh), and each one is a small masterpiece of Edwardian parody and humour. Beerbohm's line sketches of each one of his (imaginary?!) characters are included at the end of the book. Some of the tales have an unexpectedly supernatural twist (the neo-Faustian bargain struck by Enoch Soames being the best of the lot). Three cheers for the NYRB Press for bringing these forgotten gems back into print.

There are two stories in this collection that are incomparable: "Enoch Soames" and "Savaranola Brown". For the story of Enoch Soames alone, this collection is perhaps worth the price. Enoch Soames is a disheartened poet who is unappreciated. One day he becomes fed up with his inability to court fame (his second book sells 3 copies) and so makes an agreement with the devil to travel to the future to learn what's been written about him in return for an eternal trip to the Devil's home. I can't reveal what happens next, but suffice it to say that the story revels in metaphysical twists and fascinating character sketches.

Most of the other stories were disappointing (John Updike admits as much in the introduction). But if you've never read Beerbohm, this is a good place to start.