ABSTRACT
On publication, Edwin Muir's The Story and the Fable 1 was hailed as “a book of outstanding delicacy and integrity.” 2 Michael Hamburger described An Autobiography as a “singularly honest and lucid account,” 3 while Rex Warner almost ran out of adjectives in gushing that these writings should be labelled “gentle and wise, modest, vivid and illuminating.” 4 Alfred Kazin referred to Muir as “a giver of testimony”; and Stephen Spender, with a note of meekly resigned puzzlement, commented that “it is difficult to criticise a work which gives a single-minded impression of integrity.” 5 No less an authority than T.S. Eliot sought to stress Muir's “unmistakable integrity”; 6 but even this tribute is less revealing than that paid by Richard Hoggart.
