Passion and Cunning - and Other Essays

Conor Cruise O''Brien''s brilliant and hugely controversial 1965 essay on the political convictions of W. B. Yeats is the title-piece for this superb 1988 collection of pieces on politics, religion, nationalism and terrorism.

''O''Brien is a man of strong views, and he writes with verve and wit. Agree with him or not, one reads him with enjoyment.'' Foreign Affairs

''[Passion and Cunning] displays once again [O''Brien''s] wonderful range of talents: a beautiful command of the language, gentle wit and coruscating satire, shrewd political judgment and a raking critical power. O''Brien is, moreover, a critic against all-comers, his spiky guns pointing in all directions: woe betide anyone incautious enough to presume that O''Brien is on their ''side''. . . O''Brien believes in all manner of good causes, but his own independence is finally what he cares about most.'' R. W. Johnson, London Review of Books