Frances Partridge
For me, the year's landscape is dominated obelisk-wise by the admirable biography Freud: A Life for our Time by Peter Gay (Dent, £16), a work of immense scho- larship and absorbing interest both human and theoretical, which should have secured itself a permanent place in that vast and thorny field. I approached another book on a serious subject, Robert Kee's Munich, the Eleventh Hour (Hamish Hamilton, £14.95), with misgivings. Could one really face all that dreariness again? Yes, and be completely gripped into the bargain by the masterly thoroughness and balance with which the author deploys his story. Mod- ern historical writing at its best. For a complete change of mood I turn to Peter Quennell's The Pursuit of Happiness (Con- stable, £12.95). The subject is refreshing, and the author pierces the prevailing gloom with a beam of light which moves discursively between many aspects of his reading from Baudelaire to Byron and Bloomsbury, but with the accent on France. Quennell's elegant writing is a delight to read, but I confess to being surprised to find Robespierre among the pleasure-seekers.
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