Review: Enlightening by Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin's letters show that he was in a chattering class all of his own, says Terry Eagleton

The child of Hasidic Jews who fled Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, Isaiah Berlin spent the rest of his days in an Oxford that might have been purpose-built for him. Oxford is one of the great hubs of the British establishment, but prefers to see itself as a haven for free spirits and flamboyant individualists. A don might endure the inconvenience of standing for hours in a pub with a...