Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments vii
4. Introduction: Shirley Hazzard – Author, Amateur, Intellectual ix
5. Part 1. Through Literature Itself
6. We Need Silence to Find Out What We Think 3
7. The Lonely Word 12
8. Part 2. The Expressive Word
9. A Mind Like a Blade: Review of Muriel Spark, Collected Stories I and The Public Image 55
10. Review of Jean Rhys, Quartet 59
11. The Lasting Sickness of Naples: Review of Matilde Serao, Il Ventre di Napoli 63
12. The New Novel by the New Nobel Prize Winner: Review of Patrick White, The Eye of the Storm 67
13. Ordinary People: Review of Barbara Pym, Quartet in Autumn and Excellent Women 74
14. Translating Proust 76
15. Introduction to Geoffrey Scott’s The Portrait of Zélide 85
16. Introduction to Iris Origo’s Leopardi: A Study in Solitude 92
17. William Maxwell 101
18. Part 3. Public Themes
19. The Patron Saint of the UN is Pontius Pilate 109
20. “Gulag” and the Men of Peace 112
21. The United Nations: Where Governments Go to Church 117
22. The League of Frightened Men: Why the UN is So Useless 127
23. UNhelpful: Waldheim’s Latest Debacle 136
24. A Writer’s Reflections on the Nuclear Age 142
25. Part 4. The Great Occasion
26. Canton More Far 149
27. Papyrology at Naples 167
28. The Tuscan in Each of Us 175
29. Part V. Last Words
30. 2003 National Book Award Acceptance 183
31. The New York Society Library Discussion, September 2012 185
32. Notes 187
33. Index 209