he rather strangely praised Henry James for 'his classical equanimity [...]'

this would enable him to trace a line from the aestheticism of Mallarmé and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam to Proust

I am guilty of its every stricture and I take an extraordinary delight in its considered approbation

his passionate and expiatory nature

leave them in a dapple of ambiguity rather than drag them out into any prematurely decisive light of judgment

this pugilistic confidence is surely misplaced

unlike the poorer stories, which are lovingly excoriated

Lionel Trilling imbricates ideas and aesthetics with greater skill

She had the bright, open face that always reminded me of the vast midwestern welkin.

the better to produce a skein of intellectual costume drama