A Christmas Garland

At the height of his powers in 1912, with the splendour of ZuleikaDobson (released the previous year) still glowing, Max Beerbohm was able toplace a crowning seal upon his reputation as a parodist.

Collecting together eight pieces which had already gracedthe pages of the Saturday Review, he wove in a further nine to create acompendium of brilliance in the art.

No major writer of the times was safe from what he calledhis '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, theirpeccadilloes exposed and their failings exaggerated. All of the fondlypilloried were still alive, and so able to taste to the full the master's zest.

Each of these pieces revolves in some form around theChristmas season, with scenarios ranging from the capture of Santa Claus as amiscreant by an overzealous police constable (Kipling), to a hoary traveller findinghimself the subject of the 'Christmas dinner' of a tropical tribe (Conrad). Inall of them a literary great is adroitly harpooned, and we are thoroughlyentertained.

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