随性而至

Just As Inspiration Comes is a diversely-styled and marvelous collection of essays, typical of a masterpiece on literary criticism highly respected by Maugham. A variety of themes are covered in the essay where it delivers eccentric yet ingenious depiction on various characters ranging from master philosopher Kant to a tough-minded detective novelist Chandler, from the legend of the Spanish Baroque painter Zurbaran to the art of the Western detective fiction, from statesman Burke to travel and memoir writer Augustus Haier, all the way to pure literature writers such as HenryJames, H G Wells, Arnold Bennett and EdithWharton, etc. Maugham gave a vivid description of character, temperament, peculiarity and even the soul of these above-mentioned famous figures in an interesting and keen manner by means of his insightful creation of novel figures combined with superb storytelling skills, making it well-deserved among excellent articles with a breakthrough in two different fields of figure essays and literary criticism.