Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944), who often published under the pen-name of ‘Q’, was one of the giants of early twentieth-century literature and literary criticism. A novelist and poet who was also a Professor of English, he helped to form the literary tastes of generations of literary students and scholars who came after him. The freshness, enthusiasm and intellectual insight of his work is still evident in his writings nearly a century on. Cambridge University Press is delighted to reissue some of his key texts in this new edition. Early in his career Quiller-Couch made many short contributions to the periodical The Speaker. The articles collected here address subjects as diverse as ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘The Popular Conception of a Poet’ and ‘Who wrote the Odyssey?