This volume gathers essays by the Nobel laureate author, published from 1986 to 1999.

The first extensive essay ("What is Classic?") explores the issue of the norm in both music and literature, while the remaining ones address aspects of the works of classic and modern authors, from Defoe and Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and the great German-speaking writers of the interwar period (Kafka, Rilke, Musil) to contemporary colleagues for whom he does not hesitate to express judgments or reservations.