"If they ever put a bullet through your brain, I'll complain." Cole Porter's loyal affirmation is just one of the many views on friendship expressed in this anthology funny, moving, philosophical, and enriching extracts from such writers as Cicero, Pope, Boswell, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Dickens, and Thoreau. Divided into 12 sections, the book examines the nature of friendship itself, the ideal number of friends, and our expectations of them, before moving on to all manner of friendships in many different times and places.