At Large and at Small: Confessions of a Literary Hedonist by Anne Fadiman

This collection is a dirge to the dying form of the "familiar essay" — fireside ponderings from the heart and the brain.

Fadiman discloses her "monumental crush" on Shakespeare scholar Charles Lamb; her experience of seeing a boy drown; and her childhood butterfly obsession, claiming in reference to a fellow literary lepidopteron: "If you have never netted a butterfly, you cannot truly understand Nabokov." She often attributes undue quirkiness to her nerdy habits. But her inviting sense of wonder will win you over — heart and brain..

Synopsis by Foyles.co.uk

In "At Large and At Small", Anne Fadiman returns to one of her favourite genres, the familiar essay - a beloved and hallowed literary tradition recognized for both its intellectual breadth and its miniaturist focus on everyday experiences. With her wonderful combination of wit and erudition, Fadiman draws us into twelve of her personal obsessions: from her slightly sinister childhood enthusiasm for catching butterflies to her monumental crush on Charles Lamb, from her wistfulness for the days of letter-writing to the challenges and rewards of moving from the city to the country.Many of these essays were composed 'under the influence' of the subject at hand. Fadiman divulges her passion for Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Chocolate Chip and her brother's homemade Liquid Nitrogen Kahlua Coffee (recipe included); she sustains a terrific caffeine buzz while recounting Balzac's coffee addiction; and she stays up till dawn to write about being a night owl, examining the rhythms of our circadian clocks and sharing such insomnia cures as her father's nocturnal word games and Lewis Carroll's mathematical puzzles. This is a perfect book for life's passionate obsessives.