A companion to The Human Country: New and collected Stories, this volume
collects all of Harry Mathews's non-fiction, including an astonishing
range of essays which discuss everything from complex literary and
musical forms to the works of Lewis Carroll, Raymond Roussel, Italo
Calvino, Joseph McElroy, George Perec and the OuLiPo. Throughout the
collection, Mathews examines the relationship between form and
literature in a lucid, intimate voice, arguing with erudition, grace and
humour for the importance of artifice.