SOURCE: Fenyvesi, Charles. Review of Familiar Territory, by Joseph Epstein. New Republic 181, no. 19 (10 November 1979): 37-8.

In the following review, Fenyvesi provides a positive assessment of Familiar Territory.

Joseph Epstein is a leading American practitioner of the vanishing craft of the familiar essay—a genre best defined by Klee's explanation of his art: “I take a line out for a walk.”

But the metaphor need not be taken literally. Essay writers are known for their sedentary habits, and it should come as no surprise that Epstein reserves his sharpest invective for joggers: “… it is the virtuousness of runners that appalls.” I myself have always imagined the great William Hazlitt descanting on life and letters from a fine leather armchair and with a bottle of good port within reach. The inimitable Max Beerbohm ever appears to me as holding court at high tea, and G. K. Chesterton's wit must have...