A Christmas Garland

17 parodies with a Christmas theme of some of the most renowned authors of the period - including Kipling, Henry James, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells and Conrad - written by Max Beerbohm, whose reputation as a humourist and writer remains high. It is regarded as one of the finest collection of parodies in the English language. Max Beerbohm's parodies are funny, even now, when the reputations of the writers spoofed have tarnished or faded. George Moore may be all but forgotten. G**rg* M**r* lives: There is but one doorstep worth scrubbing. The doorstep of Charles Dickens.... Did he write many books? I know not, it does not greatly matter, he wrote the "Pickwick Papers"; that suffices. I have read as yet but one chapter, describing a Christmas party in a country house. Strange that anyone should have essayed to write about anything but that! Christmas-I see it now-is the only moment in which men and women are really alive, are really worth writing about. At other seasons they do not exist for the purpose of art. I spit on all seasons except Christmas.... One may admire G. K. Chesterton, and still realize that Beerbohm has his number: I find myself in agreement with the cynics in so far that I admit that Christmas, as now observed, tends to create melancholy. But the reason for this lies solely in our own misconception. Christmas is essentially a dies iræ. If the cynics will only make up their minds to treat it as such, even the saddest and most atrabilious of them will acknowledge that he has had a rollicking day. In short, whether it's G. B. Shaw, or Henry James, H. G. Wells, or Rudyard Kipling, M*ax B**rb*hm has written a very funny Christmas story in each one's all-too-imitable style. Read 'em and weep.