Obiter Dicta

by Augustine Birrell

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Genres: Essays

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1884

About the author

The Right Honourable Augustine Birrell was an English politician, barrister, academic and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising.

Birrell was the son of a Baptist minister. He was educated at Amersham Hall school and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he was made an Honorary Fellow in 1879. He started work in a solicitor's office in Liverpool but was called to the Bar in 1875, becoming a QC in 1893.

In 1888 he married Eleanor Tennyson, daughter of the poet Frederick Locker-Lampson and widow of Lionel Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. They had two sons, one of whom, Frankie (1889–1935) was later a journalist and critic and associated with the Bloomsbury Group.

From 1896 to 1899 he was Professor of Comparative Law at University College, London. President of the Board of Education, 1905-7; won appreciation by his conduct of the 'Education Bill.' He possessed a curious type of humour which found expression in sayings known in the House of Commons and the Press as 'Birrellisms.' A noted Liberal speaker on political platforms.

He retired from political life in 1916. Lived at Elm Park Road, Chelsea, and devoted himself to literary work.

Essayist and critic; distinguished as a writer by the winning and informal quality of his style.

Author, Obiter Dicta; Res Judicatae; Men, Women and Books; Life of Charlotte Brontë; Sir Frank Lockwood, etc. Published an edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson; also Browning's Poems, etc.
(Burke, Knightage; The Times, Nov. 21, 1933.)

Reviews

[T Collen]

I agree with all the other reviewers. Although Birrell's writing seems somehow stuffy and dated, this book is worth reading.

Here's a gem from page 23, "... close your wide mouth and cease shrieking."

[Lucy]

The author has a wry style that's quite appealing, even though the content is somewhat remote from us now. Surprisingly readable.

[Avis Black]

Available at Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7299

[Cera]

I have a vague sense that it irritated me, but that I liked it enough that I bought it & the sequel at Powells for cheap, so maybe I'm remembering something else?

[Galicius]

Interesting commentaries on Cellini, Johnson, Browning.