In his lively revival of the moral essay, A Visit to Vanity Fair, Alan Jacobs reminds us that "our ordinariness and our finitude do not sanction moral indifference or the refusal to practice, publicly when necessary, moral discernment."

If indeed we were created to "look at this world with a happy eye, but from a sober perspective," as W.H. Auden suggests, then Alan Jacobs shows us precisely how to do so. These perceptive moral essays crackle with wit, intelligence, and a wide range of knowledge. Jacobs, a cultural hawkeye, delivers literary finesse in relevant, down-to-earth meditations on "the way we live now."

A Visit to Vanity Fair blends personal reflection with cultural criticism to address topics close to our experience-reading the Bible (or Harry Potter) with our children, sitting with a dying friend, or watching television wildlife documentaries. In eloquent, learned prose, it gracefully models the thing it proposes: the act of paying attention. This is just what we needed-the moral essay, revived and at its best, "striving for charity but passionate in its sympathy for human pain and weakness; aware of the powers of writing to help us enjoy or endure our lives."