Elizabeth Hardwick’s essays are filled with quiet insights, so quiet that I had to read them in the mornings, when my mind was fresh enough to pay attention. She sifts plot and character to reveal truth with wry humor: “Heaven is not likely to send a desperate, strong-willed woman of thirty an interesting, unmarried man.” As Hardwick explores numerous works of great writers, she is always sensitive to the challenges women have faced, but she resists blaming sexism. In the ess