Publisher's Synopsis
Table talk is a literary genre, a species of memoir. A collector (biographer, colleague, friend, etc.) records impromptu comments by some famous person (made generally at the dining table or in small get-togethers), in anticipation of their lasting value. The precedent in classical literature was the account of a symposium, such as the Table Talk (Symposiaka) of Plutarch, though this was a supposed memoir of an occasion, rather than a person. This classical genre itself derives from the more philosophical dialogues written by the followers of Socrates, and in particular the Symposia of Plato and Xenophon.
