THE PORTABLE READER'S COMPANION

Subtitled ""A Personal Anthology selected for re-readability from the writers of 2000 years for the reader of today"", this is a brilliant piece of editing, in its contagious enthusiasm of selection, its catholicity of taste essential for this sort of anthology. The introduction makes one forgive omissions and consider more carefully his inclusions. Here is a one-volume introduction to much that one has forgotten, or never known, from the classics -- from familiar and often used material without which no anthology could face its public. There are odds and ends that make good pick-up reading; there is a wide choice of poetry and light verse; there are letters, excerpts from biographical writings, from critical writing; there are a few examples of world literature in translation; and there is a judicious selection of aphorisms. Certainly not keyed to a predictably popular taste, this is nevertheless the sort of book that one could easily send overseas to anyone who missed contact with his own library shelves.