A Victorian for our time
He was not a literary critic in the dreary academic sense of the term, nor a political economist, nor a historian. He was all of these and none of them. He was in fact an amateur of genius with that breadth of mind and wide range of interests which to us seems one of the most valuable and agreeable characteristics of the Victorian age. (Norman St. John-Stevas)
It would be a most agreeable good fortune to introduce Bagehot to men who hate not read him. To ask your friend to know Bagehot is like inviting him to seek pleasure. (President Woodrow Wilson)
Bagehot is perhaps one of the most important and most neglected among Victorian men of letters. His book The English Constitution-a study of the working of the -English constitution between the two parliamentary reform acts, 1832 and 1867-is a classic. He was also editor of the Economist, a widely read essayist, wit, ironist and mystic. Norman St. John-Stevas, apart from his career as an M.P., has written a biography of Bagehot and is currently editing the complete literary works and papers-the first four volumes of which have already been published. Tonight he reflects on the man's life and work and sets him in the context of our time.