xvii, 430 p. ; 21 cm

Originally published: London ; New York : Verso, c2000

I. "In praise of ...": The Wilde side -- Oscar Wilde's socialism -- Lord Trouble -- George Orwell and Raymond Williams -- Oh, Lionel! [P.G. Wodehouse] -- Age of ideology -- The real thing [Michael Frayn] -- The cosmopolitan man [Gore Vidal] -- After-time -- Ireland -- Stuck in neutral -- A regular bull [Whittaker Chambers] -- Not dead yet [Salman Rushdie] -- Against sinister perfectionism [Robert Conquest, Ezra Pound] -- Mid off, not right on [V.S. Naipaul]. -- II. "In spite of themselves...": Old man Kipling -- Critic of the booboisie [H.L. Mencken] -- Goodbye to Berlin [Isaiah Berlin, Marxism, Zionism] -- The grimmest tales [Roald Dahl, censorship of children's books] -- The importance of being Andy [Warhol] -- How unpleasant to meet Mr. Eliot -- Powell's way [Anthony Powell] -- Something about the poems [Philip Larkin] -- The egg-head's egger-on [Saul Bellow] -- Bloom's way [Allan Bloom] -- Lightness at midnight [Martin Amis on Stalin]. -- III. "Themes...": Hooked on Ebonics -- In defence of plagiarism -- Ode to the West Wing. -- IV.: "For their own sake...": O'Brian's great voyage [Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander series] -- The case of Arthur Conan Doyle -- The road to West Egg [Great Gatsby] -- Rebel in evening clothes [Dorothy Parker]-- The long littleness of life [Isherwood]. -- V. "Enemies list...": Running on empty [Tom Wolfe] -- Unmaking friends [Norman Podhoretz] -- Something for the boys [Tom Clancy] -- The cruiser [Conor Cruise O'Brien]

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