The tales that make up Seven Men and Two Others start out as a set of "faux" memoirs set amid London literary life in the precious fin de siècle era and proceed into deliciously absurd fantasy. With a sense of fun, a hint of nostalgia, razor-sharp satire, and pitch-perfect parody, Beerbohm tugs at the affected nature of the whole literary scene—lamentable authors, wily agents, and preposterous weekend salons. Seven Men (1919; enlarged edition as Seven Men, and Two Others, 1950)