From the bookshelves 70

A book of essays by Guy Davenport worth re-reading.  I  have not read any of Guy's fiction. The title essay of this book begins:

The difference between the Parthenon and the World trade center, between a French wine glass and a German beer mug, between Bach and John Philip Sousa, Between Sophocles and Shakespeare, between a bicycle and a horse, though explicable by historical moment, necessity, and destiny, is before all else a difference of imagination.

The essay's subjects range from Homer to Guy's next-door-neighbour. As a Rhodes Scholar at Merton Guy studied Old English under Professor Tolkien.