I. People: just like you and me -- The Emperor of China -- Su cosa mi cosa; or, Busy busy busy -- The offending member -- The entertainer -- I don't care what mama don't allow -- Pushkin in English -- The ugly duck -- Father knows best -- Portnoy's bachelor uncle -- Aged eagles and dirty old men -- Issues and answers: or, If you've tried it don't knock it -- The smell of martality -- II. Scholars: the soft recesses of uneasy minds -- The blind men and the elephant -- Stone-deaf theologians -- III. Operators: if they don't like it here why don't they go back where they came from? -- Adorable ideas and absent plenitudes -- Mad dogs and anglo shrinks -- A thrust in the hand is worth two in the bush -- IV. Books in bunches: the fox and the grapes -- Old pros with news from nowhere -- Fiction and truth -- V. Four ways of looking: books are not life but then what is? -- Chamber of horrors -- Good and proper (I) -- Good and proper (II) -- Mrs. Harris and the hend of all things.