The Great Melody

Conor Cruise O''Brien''s majestic meditation on the life and writings of Burke was originally published in 1992. ''O''Brien [had] been brooding on Edmund Burke for decades. First he worked on a narrative approach and came to a standstill, he knew not why. Then, in the light of much painful observation of the world and its wickedness, he turned to a thematic treatment, inspired by Yeats''s elliptic lines: "American colonies, Ireland, France and India / Harried, and Burke''s great melody against it." "It", he decided, was the abuse of power.'' Paul Johnson, Independent on Sunday ''The best book about Edmund Burke ever written . . . It succeeds in liberating this remarkable, tormented and brilliant man from those confusing and confining details of British high political life . . . O''Brien''s version of Burke''s career is a self-reflective and immensely personal one, but its authenticity penetrates to the core.'' Linda Colley, Observer