Hamlet

Hamlet, we are told, has generated more literary criticism than any other work. Arnold, who I drink with mostly on Tuesdays, has set out to change that by forming a centre for the study of Somerset Maugham with an attached publishing house. It will, he hopes, have published 18,562 critical essays and 8,729 scholarly books. I find his goal strange, mostly due to the ardour of his catholicism.