Customer Reviews

Seven Men and Two Others

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

These fictitious biographical sketches are superb blends of gentle humor with worldly wisdom. This is one of the finest books of the twentieth century and maybe one of the finest books ever written. If you can, try to get the hardcover Oxford World's Classics edition, which reproduces the pencil sketches that Beerbohm (who was a highly talented caricaturist as well as a fine writer) made of five of the "seven men." The sketches add yet another layer of meaning and resonance to what is already a marvelous book that easily bears any number of rereadings.

The essay/sketches which are presented in Seven Men And Two Others begin as the author's memories of London literary life at the turn of the century and move into satire and parody as Beerbohm comments on authors, critics and literary circles alike. Seven Men And Two Others is a revealing achievement and a fun survey of literary circle evolution.

In addition to being a wonderful work of literature, Seven Men has the advantage of being not totally fictional. One of the seven actually existed. For those interested, I would refer you to the Nov 1997 issue of Atlantic Monthly.