Drawing on Bagehot's essays, pamphlets, books and articles from "The Economist", this is a collection of his best writing. There are pieces on Shakespeare, entrepreneurs, the stupidity of the English, the monarchy and the foolishness of bankers, as well as portraits of Lincoln, Gladstone and Disraeli. This book is to be published simultaneously with Ruth Dudley Edwards's "The Pursuit of Reason: 'The Economist' 1843-1993".