“... reader of Waugh might hope to find ... everything notably funny, elegant, beautiful, profound or self-revealing, and everything that seems to define Waugh’s own aims.’ The ‘overproduction’ could in the nature of the case not be stopped, at this time of day, even by the least ‘insolent’ publisher; if there is a charge against Methuen it could only ...”

“... over a collection of dull, dim essays straining to articulate they know not what. The volume’s self-reflexive murkiness seems symptomatic of a more general malaise, and it is hard to remind oneself that it is simply the product of a small group of academics who have lost all touch with an audience and a society. It appears to express some deeper and more ...”

“... treated it more decently – as he does elsewhere in the novel. In 1964 John Fowles published ‘a self-portrait in ideas’ called The Aristos, of which he has said: ‘I hate to think of the awful pages of bad philosophy that would be in my novels if I hadn’t written that. ‘Perhaps time will find a similar use for Mantissa: at the moment, there’s ...”

“... that of Suckling or Herrick. Rochester’s is the voice of a man grown so familiar with his own self-destructiveness that it causes him no surprise. The very unstrained quality of his style makes his honesty the more chilling.’ The contribution by the editor of the volume begins with a consideration of the difficulty in distinguishing Rochester’s poems ...”

“... from other people. The social constraints the Medieval communal ideal and framework had put on self-assertion, if not self-interest, were progressively fraying. In the 15th century, they had started fitting out family side-chapels in the churches – already self-differentiation from ...”

“... artist’s social exclusion. The glimpsed conjugal scene is fixed in his mind, a mental snapshot self-consciously cherished, and his own exclusion spliced into the picture by a kind of internal photomontage: He would be there, sitting waiting, always, The woman always kissed upon her cheek, Her husband turning, moving to his stables Or wherever ... Here ...”

“... among the guilty men and Vidal’s tone, like Mailer’s, was shrill, vengeful and tremulous with self-regard. It was not that the reviewers had been ‘wrong’ about his book: it was simply that, in one way or another, because of something feeble or unhealthy in their personalities, they were not ‘adequate’ to cope with the full majesty of Gore’s ...”

“... that sort of way. And to turn the knife in the wound Sam had acquired such a lot of Wordsworthian self-righteousness, and if Sara spoke out at all would accuse her of being ‘narrow-minded’. Well, well. That was how it might have struck a contemporary, either then or now. Lyrical Ballads and Journals and things – their fame was all to come, and it was ...”

“... of other people’s intolerance, of those impatient to inflict their own disagreeable and self-righteous views (particularly when political or architectural) on others. Thus the people he most dislikes are puritans, ‘miserabilists’, Enemies of Pleasure, ‘propagandists of Virtue’ and their admirers, especially those who become tourists of a ...”

“... of the it virtue. And he is also right in Chapter 12 when he argues that Jefferson’s concept of self-evident moral truths can most plausibly be construed as the adoption of certain positions of Thomas Reid. What he then proceeds to ignore is that if what Reid asserted and argued for is true, then Huleheson’s moral philosophy is false, and vice ...”

“... man: Thomas Cromwell. He is similarly fixed in his methods. Now, as always, Elton believes in the self-sufficiency of the record. All the historian is required to do is to approach the evidence with an open mind, study it faithfully, and write up his results clearly: ‘that is how historical knowledge should advance, and that is how as a rule it does.’ All ...”

“... paintings, novels, poems and plays. The main reason is probably media hype. A second is nostalgic self-indulgence – finding pretexts not to put away childish things. A third, perhaps, is semantic slippage, eliding the difference between ‘a culture’, in the anthropological sense, and ‘culture’ tout court. When millions enjoy something, the interest ...”

“... patron of the Ursulines or the Cineclub de Madrid, a line which divides revolutionary art from self-indulgent political gesturing? Wisely, Buñuel managed to steer clear of any of the more violent Surrealist events himself. While he was shooting L’Age d’Or, the lads went on a rumble one night to turn over a night-club which had intrepidly named itself ...”

“... a spirit of one for all. Then younger members make their break, rebelling or deviating. The larger self of the family falls apart. Eventually, a point is reached where the youngest glimpses, as from Pisgah, the possibility of a fully individual life. Wild horses gallop, stars are apostrophised. It’s never a straightforward journey, these novels aver. The two ...”

“... everything the wrong way round.’ And that had to be their advantage. Indeed, the Columbians’ self-deprecating excuse became the basis of what he agrees to have been his most celebrated thought: that rather than start with everything at once, or start at the theoretically-appointed place, with iron and steel and machine tools, and work forwards, one might ...”