Lives of the Mind

Mr. Kimball, one of the best of our cultural critics, offers a lively and penetrating study of genius--and pseudo-genius--at work, and investigates the use and abuse of intelligence. Drawing on figures as various as Plutarch and Hegel, Kierkegaard and P. G. Wodehouse, Elias Canetti and Anthony Trollope, he provides a sharply observed tour of Western intellectual and artistic aspiration. "A master of the genre, as collections of his pieces attest, none more impressively than this set."-Booklist Starred Review.