Definitive. . . . Deeply researched and pondered. A literary biography of the same caliber as Richard EllmannsStannard has been the first commentator to make me not only understand but deeply sympathize with the desperate ambivalence in this great novelist between his passionate Christian concern with saving souls (including, of course, his own) and his almost maniacal scorn for the follies and mediocrity of the common man. Louis Auchincloss