DOI article:
Books: a letter to the editor and an offer of a prize
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27806#0147
From “The Yellow Dwarf” 143
addressing you. And surely a style ought to be personal, or else
style’s not the man.
The question of style apart, however, what makes Celibates an
impressive book, very nearly a great book, is its insight, its sin-
cerity, its vividness, its sympathy. If Mildred Lawson were only
decently written—if only some kind soul would do us a decent
rendering of it into English—Mildred Lawson would be a story
that one could speak of in the same breath with Madame Bovary.
Yes. The assertion is startling, but the assertion is an assertion
my prize-critic must boldly hazard and proceed to justify. Mildred
Lawson is one of the most interesting and one of the most com-
plex women I have ever met in fiction. Her selfishness, her
weakness, her strength, her vanity, her coldness, her hundred and
one qualities, traits, moods, are analysed with a minuteness that is
scientific, but synthesised with a vividness that is entirely artistic,
and therefore convincing, moving, memorable. John Norton,
structurally, is not quite so faultless as Mildred Lawson, but it is
still a very notable achievement, a very important contribution to
the English fiction of our day; and I don’t know whether, on the
whole, Agnes Lahens isn’t the best piece of work in the volume.
However, these are questions for my'prize-critics to discuss at
length—Mr. Moore’s execrable, excellent style ; how, as it were,
one would imagine he wrote with his boot, not with his pen ; his
subtle lack of 'grace, of humour ; his deep, true, sympathetic
insight ; his sincerity, his impressiveness ; and what his place is
among the four or five considerable writers of fiction now living
in England.—-I, sir, have already too far trespassed upon your
valuable space.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient servant,
The Yellow Dwarf.
addressing you. And surely a style ought to be personal, or else
style’s not the man.
The question of style apart, however, what makes Celibates an
impressive book, very nearly a great book, is its insight, its sin-
cerity, its vividness, its sympathy. If Mildred Lawson were only
decently written—if only some kind soul would do us a decent
rendering of it into English—Mildred Lawson would be a story
that one could speak of in the same breath with Madame Bovary.
Yes. The assertion is startling, but the assertion is an assertion
my prize-critic must boldly hazard and proceed to justify. Mildred
Lawson is one of the most interesting and one of the most com-
plex women I have ever met in fiction. Her selfishness, her
weakness, her strength, her vanity, her coldness, her hundred and
one qualities, traits, moods, are analysed with a minuteness that is
scientific, but synthesised with a vividness that is entirely artistic,
and therefore convincing, moving, memorable. John Norton,
structurally, is not quite so faultless as Mildred Lawson, but it is
still a very notable achievement, a very important contribution to
the English fiction of our day; and I don’t know whether, on the
whole, Agnes Lahens isn’t the best piece of work in the volume.
However, these are questions for my'prize-critics to discuss at
length—Mr. Moore’s execrable, excellent style ; how, as it were,
one would imagine he wrote with his boot, not with his pen ; his
subtle lack of 'grace, of humour ; his deep, true, sympathetic
insight ; his sincerity, his impressiveness ; and what his place is
among the four or five considerable writers of fiction now living
in England.—-I, sir, have already too far trespassed upon your
valuable space.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient servant,
The Yellow Dwarf.