Many of the "essays" are book reviews reprinted as essays, and mostly they work well enough in that capacity. I would say that an essayist collects his magazine work into a single volume at his own peril: essays originally read months and years apart look very different when read straight through. For example, certain clever observations (Havard was difficult to get into, easy to get out of, whereas University of Chicago was easy to get into but difficult to get out of) and favorite expressions (eminence grise) lose their freshness after the second and third encounters. ( )