HORACE WALPOLE
By
Period portrait, this leisurely and gracious biography of Walpole, that amused and cultivated spectator of 18th century England, whose greatest importance today lies in his record of the social and political life he chronicled. His biography presents him in more kindly light than others have done, -- urbane, genial, elegant, alternately politician, historian, letter-writer, author, antiquarian and virtuoso, fond of good books and fine arts, of conversation and the social amenities. This is the picture of a delightful eccentric, with appeal along the lines of The Young Melbourne, though at lower literary level.