This book was great. It is a expose of Yeats evolution from a writer to a better writer to a Master over a span of time. His critiques of peers and his approval or caustic distain are wonderful. For me he brought to life the very real fairy tale world which the Irish lived in the 1800's. I recommend it to all. It is a bit heavy at times but in some places his sentences reveal such a love for his subject that I consider it to be as poetry. I guess I can only compare some of these passages to the first chapter of the book Hawaii written by James Michner.