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Best of all, when Gene Wolfe completed “The Book of the New Sun,” John Clute’s account of the final volume, “The Citadel of the Autarch,” deserved the front page and got it.

Another autarch actually took a turn toward benevolence all on his own: North Korea's quirky Kim Jong Il reached out kindly to the previously abhorred, non-communist South, summiting gaily with its leader and making Korea's pacification seem, suddenly, like a living prospect.

Arafat is a faltering autarch who must clothe himself in a popular revolt to regain credibility with a people impatient with his imprecations of peace and condoning of corruption.

Mobutu had long counted as a friend the Romanian autarch, who came to power in 1965, as he did.