THE GREAT MELODY: A Thematic Biography of Edmund Burke By Conor Cruise O'Brien (Sinclair-Stevenson, $382) HERE is a book blessed with every possible promising circumstance. I have not read Dr O'Brien's other tomes, but exiles from the British Observer will be familiar with his journalism, which is distinguished alike for the wisdom of its contents and the felicity of its expression.
Burke is a wonderful subject. Whatever you may think about the inner workings of British politics in the late 18th century, this was an era in which the House of Commons provided superb drama, and Burke was one of its leading players.
He knew everyone who was anyone in an exciting era. Dr Johnson enjoyed his conversation. Macaulay praised his speeches. Gibbon watched him from the Visitors' Gallery. Reynolds started a portrait and Romney finished one.
Burke wrote letters to Marie Antoinette, and Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley wrote letters to him. Garrick was a friend, Lord North and Warren Hastings were enemies. Fox was first one, then the other.
Before an often breathless House, Burke crossed swords with Chatham, Pitt, Dundas, and sundry other Kowloon street names. His oratory we have to take on trust but his prose is majestic. Like the best poetry, it is worth reading aloud to yourself.
And yet, about 50 pages into this book, I was already devoutly wishing that the honour of reviewing it had gone to someone else. What went wrong? Part of the problem is that Dr O'Brien has succumbed to that occupational disease of historians - and especially biographers - which leads to an immoderate conviction of the importance and virtues of the subject.
An unhappy tone is set by the ''Introduction: Burke and some scholars'', which readers are recommended to skip.
