Five stars for two at least of the Seven Men: Enoch Soames and 'Savonarola' Brown, literary miniatures about two failed poets of sublime incompetence. Enoch Soames is a tale of Faustian time travel into what was, for Beerbohm, the barely imaginable future - which is now our well remembered past. Marvellous plot. But the plot is only the vehicle for Soames' delicately awful poems. Brown's tragedy, 'Savonarola', in Shakespearian blank verse, is another kettle of fish entirely. Splendidly declaratory. Here is the magnificently scornful Lucretia Borgia to infatuated Savonarola, after he abandons his habit and makes his appearance in the guise of a Renaissance nobleman, to woo her:

Go! Pad thy calves!
Then might'st thou just conceivably with luck,
Capture the fancy of some serving wench.

Beerbohm had perfect pitch. ( )

Wonderful, wonderful Max Beerbohm. Seven better than Zuleika Dobson! ( )

This book started out life as 'Seven Men' - the 'Two Others' were added to a later edition and have stayed ever since. It's a collection of humorous stories, mostly about the London literary scene of the 1890s, the 'decadent' Yellow Book set. The stories purport to be character portraits of people the author knew at the time, and so he appears in each as a character, sometimes unintentionally becoming a major influence in the life of his acquaintance.

'Enoch Soames' is the standout story, both the funniest and the most ingenious. It's one of the best stories I've read. If I'd read it many years ago perhaps I would have made my way across the world to the reading room of the British Museum on June 3rd, 1997, to join the other Max Beerbohm aficionados who no doubt showed up there at 2pm, in homage to this story.

Another outstanding story is 'A.V. Laider'. It is, more or less, about the lengths an unsocial Englishman will go to, to avoid having to spend time with another man, when they discover they are the only two guests staying in a seaside hotel. As an unsocial man, I found it very self-affirming. It's also very funny, especially the last bit. Then there is '"Savanarola" Brown', about a would-be playwright's would-be masterpiece, an hilarious pastiche of Shakespeare. ( )