Prose Fancies

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About this book

A spring walk becomes an occasion for reflection in Richard Le Gallienne's collection of essays. Budding trees, a sow surrounded by her piglets, and a boy gathering palm near a river lead the narrator from close observation to thoughts about tenderness, age, and the distance between country life and London's streets. The opening finds humour and feeling in small encounters, including a farmer whose sheep reveal an unexpected gentleness.

Elsewhere, Le Gallienne questions the prestige of artistic genius and wonders whether achievement can cost too much in ordinary human qualities. In 'A Borrowed Sovereign', a loan from Jim changes the narrator's mood, making London's lights and oyster shops suddenly inviting despite the need to pay for lodgings. Readers interested in the personal essay will find a conversational mixture of nature writing, literary criticism, and reflections on money, ambition, and everyday conduct.