The Angel and the Octopus

by Simon Leys

Collected essays 1983 - 1998

ISBN 1 875989 44 7

$24.95

Published February 1999

This is the first selection of essays by this world renowned scholar and novelist to be published in Australia.

The subjects include China, literature and controversy ('In praise of tobacco', 'Do we need universities?').

Authors discussed include Balzac, Victor Hugo, Simenon, Malraux, Orwell and Waugh.

'A man who deals in harmonies, who only matches stars with angels, or lambs with spring flowers, he indeed may be frivolous ... But a man who ventures to combine an angel with an octopus must have some serious view of the universe.' Chesterton.