The Scottish minister and novelist defines the bookman, who need not own many books but must love them, care how they are dressed and know them as friends. Along the way he weighs favourite novels against one another, setting Scott’s Jeanie Deans from The Heart of Midlothian beside Thackeray’s Rachel of Castlewood.
A short, warm essay for anyone who has ever lingered too long at a secondhand bookstall. Download the free EPUB.