NONFICTION - July 16, 1995

THE BOOK OF VICES: A Collection of Classic Immoral Tales by Robert J. Hutchinson (Riverhead Books: $18; 280 pp.). A collection of literary excerpts dedicated to the Seven Deadly Sins? What a great idea! Only one problem; line them up and you’ll find six dwarfs--Avarice, Sloth, Gluttony, Pride, Envy, and Anger--and one towering idol, namely Lust. Robert J. Hutchinson wisely gives pride of place to this last vice, but the rest of the book can only be a falling off, despite passages from Dante (avarice), Twain (sloth), Dickens (envy), Dostoyevsky (anger) and Milton (pride, of course, in Satan). Hutchinson ranges widely with regard to lust--Chaucer’s here, as are Boccaccio and Donne--but there are so many notables missing from this section--Casanova, de Sade, Nin, Miller, Genet, to name five--that one wishes he had devoted an entire volume to the single best sin. Fifty-odd pages on lust, considering the millions of pages available, simply aren’t enough.