The Dyer's Hand
W.H. Auden · 1962
Auden's essays are the most intellectually pleasurable in the language: wide-ranging, aphoristic, opinionated, learned without pedantry. He writes on Shakespeare, Yeats, Kierkegaard, opera, detective fiction. The educated reader's delight.
The case against
Auden built much of this from lecture notes, and parts still read like notes: pages of aphorisms in list form, taxonomies announced rather than argued, verdicts handed down with no appeals process. When he is right, the compression thrills; when he is wrong, there is nothing to push against. A commonplace book wearing the robes of criticism.
Essays · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
