[Wilson is generally considered twentieth-century America's foremost man of letters. A prolific reviewer, creative writer, and social and literary critic endowed with formidable intellectual powers, he exercised his greatest literary influence as the author of Axel's Castle (1931), a seminal study of literary symbolism, and as the author of widely read reviews and essays in which he introduced the best works of modern literature to the reading public. In the following essay, which originally appeared in the New Yorker in 1949, he reflects on Mirbeau's career and literary reputation.]

Dear me, how far from infinite the world is! Talking to my cousin today, I mentioned Octave Mirbeau's name. "Why, Mirbeau," she said, "let me see—that's the son of the doctor at Remalard, the place where we have our estate. I remember that two or three times I lashed him over the head with my whip. He was an impudent...