This is a collection of seven of Max Beerbohm's essays ranging in topic from male fashion to King George the Fourth to the use of cosmetics. The topic of any particular essay is almost beside the point, each offering the author an opportunity to wax eloquent and display his wit. Commenting on the dandyism of some public figures, Beerbohm wrote, "Outside his art, Mr. Brummell had a personality of almost Balzacian insignificance."

The Works of Max Beerbohm is a collection of satirical essays by Max Beerbohm. It was published in 1896 at The Bodley Head, his publisher John Lane contributing a detailed bibliography of the works of the author, then aged 24. Before their publication as a book, the essays had appeared in prominent literary periodicals such as The Yellow Book and The Savoy. Most of the essays were written while he was a student at Oxford, although he had left Merton College in 1894. By then he was already known as a caricaturist, parodist and essayist and well acquainted with the writers and artists connected with The Bodley Head, notably Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde. The essays can perhaps be best described as both elaborate parody and vicious satire. Beerbohm’s intimate knowledge of the social circles of the time and his penchant for pointed descriptions of character are always on display, dismantling the purported greatness that surrounds him. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Max Beerbohm, the foremost caricaturist of his day, was hailed by The Times in 1913 as the greatest of English comic artists, by Bernard Berenson as the English Goya, and by Edmund Wilson as the greatest...portrayer of personalities - in the history of art.