Christmas Garland

Collecting together eight pieces which had already graced the pages of the Saturday Review, Max Beerbohm wove in a further nine to create a compendium of brilliance in the parodic art. No major writer of the times was safe from what he called his 'sedulous aping': Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, G. K. Chesterton, Thomas Hardy, John Galsworthy, Joseph Conrad, Hilaire Belloc, George Bernard Shaw and several others had their styles examined, their peccadilloes exposed and their failings exaggerated. All of the fondly pilloried were still alive at the time of publication, and so able to taste to the full the master's zest!