Garber's Character: A Belated Book Review

One of the few aphorisms about character not to appear in Marjorie Garber’s compendious book about the subject is due to Albert Camus: “when one has no character, one must apply a method.” Garber has both. Her method is literary and cultural critique: she concentrates on language to the point that hers is more a history of the word “character” and its c…