In this sharp biographical sketch of Isaiah Berlin, Mario Vargas Llosa confirms the idea that probably only Popper and Hayek did as much for the culture of freedom as Berlin. On another level, Vargas Llosa emphasises the openness and elegance of Berlin’s prose (comparing it with that of Stendhal), as well as the contagious humanity of his essays, which often, in the author’s opinion, take on a novelistic quality.