"Mr Benchley once observed that the joy of being a Vanity Fair contributor was this: you could write about any subject you liked, no matter how outrageous, as long as you said it in evening clothes. (I have devoted my professional life to the emulation of this fine line.)" (pg. 355)

A solid collection of essays from Christopher Hitchens, dating from the 1990s and the turn of the millennium. The argument introduced in the Foreword to the book – that individual writers provide, in their books, the 'unacknowledged legislation' that creates "the moral space for a true argument" (pg. xiii) – can be hard to engage with except in the broadest terms. Nevertheless, the intersection of politics and literature is a fruitful one for the well-read and unpretentious Hitchens, and there are particularly fine essays on Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, Roald Dahl, Philip Larkin, Salman Rushdie, Patrick O'Brian and Arthur Conan Doyle, among others, as well as a charming and provocative essay entitled 'In Defence of Plagiarism'.

There are some essays that require endurance, including the Ozymandian footprints of Isaiah Berlin, Saul Bellow and Gore Vidal, and you do get the sense that Hitchens is not necessarily choosing his battles when writing at length about, say, Anthony Powell or Christopher Isherwood. Quoting Harold Isaacs, Hitchens says that there are certain writers who leave "scratches on our minds", and there are not enough of them in this book. Hitchens writes better, and with greater variety, about literature in his later collections Arguably, And Yet and Love, Poverty and War, and it is perhaps important that in those books, the literary essays are part of a balanced diet alongside political and cultural pieces.

That said, Hitchens is still on form in Unacknowledged Legislation, whether that is in praising an author (on Dorothy Parker: "her habit of stretching like a feline and then whipping out with a murderous paw" (pg. 356)) or demolishing them (Tom Clancy writes "with more energy than grammar" (pg. 404)). Such bon mots are disappointingly few for a writer of Hitchens' calibre, and the best lines come from quotations. The title is from a line of Shelley's, and the final putdown of Tom Clancy ("his writing is to prose what military music is to music" (pg. 406)) is an appropriation of Groucho Marx. Regardless, Hitchens has his evening clothes on, and is nicely turned out. ( )

Christopher Hitchens synthesizes his daunting knowledge of politics with his love of fine literature and letters in Unacknowledged Legislation, arguably his best collection of essays to date. Hitchens seeks to bridge the gap between art and politics through a critical review of the major English-speaking author's political views in the 20th century. Perhaps this critical effort could be construed as showboating as Hitchens' profession is political journalism, and this is one of his few collections which fits squarely into the literary criticism section. However, Hitchens is a fine writer and he knows his literature as well as anybody still living.

In this collection, we get a wonderful set of essays about Oscar Wilde and his contribution to the art of play-writing and support for socialism followed by his horrendous victimization as a homosexual. There's a passage from this section that I cannot resist quoting, "Wilde was able to be mordant and witty because he was, deep down and on the surface, un home serieux. May his memory stay carnation-green. May he ever encourage us to think that the bores and the bullies and the literal minds need not always win. May he induce us to rise from our semi-recumbent postures" (pg. 9).

Hitchens proceeds to run through nearly all of the crucial English writers of our era. He of course writes about Orwell, which I thought was a mute point after his Why Orwell Matters, but hey, the guy loves his Orwell. He discusses the anti-Semitism and fascism in T.S. Eliot, the racism of Rudyard Kipling, the historical depth of Gore Vidal, the heavy-handedness of Norman Podhoretz, Allan Bloom's influence on Saul Bellow, and of course, his solidarity with Salman Rushdie upon the declaration of the fatwa among Islamic Jihads, an action for which Hitchens rightfully boasts.

Hitchens also provides critical summaries of the arch-sensationalist Tom Wolf, and hack, Tom Clancy. He offers simply biting criticism of the former, and much needed as Wolf as enjoyed ludicrous financial and critical success for his quasi-journalism over the last few decades. Hitch examines Wolf's reliance on the clich, and the cultural and racial stereotype for the sake of provocation. Clancy, while less deserving of a critical review than Wolf, is quickly wrapped up in a body bag and tossed overboard by Hitch.

Unacknowledged Legislation may be Hitchens' finest blend of the political and the literary, and it may be the best example of his prolific gifts. Don't miss this volume. ( )

Outstanding criticism from a master of critical prose ( )