Books and Characters, French & English

The book is Books and Characters, French and English, by Lytton Strachey, first published in London in May 1922. The contents list Racine, Sir Thomas Browne, Shakespeare's Final Period, The Lives of the Poets and Madame du Deffand. More titles in the contents are Voltaire and England, A Dialogue, Voltaire's Tragedies, Voltaire and Frederick the Great, and The Rousseau Affair.

A note says the Dialogue is now printed for the first time, from a manuscript, apparently in the handwriting of Voltaire and belonging to his English period. The text speaks of Racine's triumph, and says that here is nothing to catch the mind or dazzle the understanding, only the most ordinary vocabulary, plainly set forth. The text says more detailed evidence of Voltaire's utter lack of dramatic insight is to be found, of course, in his criticisms of Shakespeare. The text says Lady Hester discovered that she was dying to see Napoleon with her own eyes, and attempted accordingly to obtain passports to France.