Books: Tottering into Vogue

HORACE WALPOLE (215pp.)—Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis—Pantheon ($6.50).

If a man is the son of a Prime Minister, he has a very fair chance of getting somewhere himself. Indeed, if he shares his father's genius, as did the younger Pitt, he may become Prime Minister himself. But if, like Horace Walpole, he is as waspishly well-bred as his father was openhanded and bluff, he doubtless does better to observe than participate. As the great Sir Robert's son, Horace Walpole had a ubiquitous entree as well as a tireless eye and the great world's attentive ear. His letters, the most diverting in all English literature,...