Perhaps what's most admirable about these essays is their genial and searching tone.
Tall, handsome, energetic, this was the final distillation of all that was most admirable in his time.
And yet what's most admirable about this modest virtuoso, who can hold an audience spellbound on his own, is how he surrounds himself with artists of similar caliber and lets them shine.
The "Aeneid" is a parody of sorts and is most admirable where it is least Homeric, and we may be grateful that the parodic vestiges in "Madame Bovary" (e.g., the descriptions of Emma's girlhood reading) are all but dissolved by Flaubert's sympathetic immersion in his heroine.
But it was most admirable to hear her make mention of her sons, without any tears or sign of grief, and give the full account of all their deeds and misfortunes, as if she had been relating the history of some ancient heroes.
And what is most admirable about Ms. Rhimes's achievement is that in a business that is still run by note-giving, nit-picking, compromise-seeking network executives, her work is mercifully free of uplifting role models, parables and moral teachings.
It is a good thing that I have a large house". This book captures all that is most admirable about the professional middle class in the Arab world: the resilience through years of conflict, the family solidarity, the restraint, good humour, gallantry and humanity.
In fact, what's most admirable about "Stillness" is what their author shares in common with many of the ordinary heroes and heroines she describes -- a courage born out of the experience of finding yourself in a situation you would never have chosen, one that demands a response that is both canny and intuitive.
What's most admirable about Thompson's fiction is her unflagging patience with the flaws and limitations of these decent people; even the narrator of the aptly titled "Mr. Rat," a guy so self-centered as to give narcissism a bad name, ultimately reveals the insecurity and fear concealed beneath the insensitive bluster and shallow self-regard.
"The wings of these little animals account for what is most admirable in them.
