tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post693053684667220771..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: five posts on Arnold Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale crammed into oneAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-20115036921624021552017-06-13T12:19:16.538-05:002017-06-13T12:19:16.538-05:00A streak of Wilde - yes, even the self-destructive...A streak of Wilde - yes, even the self-destructive streak! The Woolf demolition was a self-inflicted injury.<br /><br />"fledgling modernism" is good. The "change" theme is central to the novel as a form, but I do not remember a Victorian so directly making social change the subject of the novel.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-81949578496962556532017-06-12T12:54:08.370-05:002017-06-12T12:54:08.370-05:00My appreciation for The Old Wives' Tale has on...My appreciation for <i>The Old Wives' Tale</i> has only grown since reading it last summer. An alternate interpretation of my comment that Bennett "has refused" to let go of the 19th century novel is that he could be very much deliberately using it to make his fledgling modernism stand out. I also get the sense that his enjoyment in writing novels may only have been exceeded by his enjoyment in being somewhat blithe cavalier about it. There's a streak of Oscar Wilde in Bennett. seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-24758597295162014752017-06-08T20:07:07.944-05:002017-06-08T20:07:07.944-05:00But now I see that I forgot the most interesting t...But now I see that I forgot the most interesting thing in the book, unless it is not there at all.<br /><br />I <i>think</i> that in the Parisian quarter of the novel Bennett assimilates the character of Sophia with the French setting by subtly, gradually working gallicisms into the writing, first in representations of speech, which is not so unusual, but eventually into lines attributable to the narrator and to Sophia's thoughts. The language of the novel becomes more French as time passes.<br /><br />But I took no notes. I have no examples. Maybe it is not really there. If it is, it is a heck of a trick.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-32394806591536752542017-06-08T20:01:43.747-05:002017-06-08T20:01:43.747-05:00Christopher, you might be thinking of a different ...Christopher, you might be thinking of a different Forster. I mean the pre-December 1910 Forster, the one writing before human character changed. He is much more Victorian than the later one.<br /><br />His Victorianness has two aspects. First, the intrusive, comic, ironic omniscient narrator, right out of Thackeray and Trollope. Bennett is in the same line. Second, the ideological basis of Forster's critique of rigid, misguided Victorian values is eminently Victorian. It is mostly out of Pater. And anyway, critiquing Victorian values is one of the main functions of the Victorian novel. See Thackeray, Trollope, etc.<br /><br />Speaking of Pater, does the <i>Old Wives' Tale</i> feature a character who is a worshiper of Pan? "<a href="http://wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2015/05/we-did-tire-later-max-beerbohm-examines.html" rel="nofollow">We did tire later</a>."<br /><br />Now, before <i>Pendennis</i>. I don't know. Probably? I think you would enjoy the novel a lot - it feels like Karen describes it - and the four part novella-like structure helps keep it light. Somehow I feared it would be ponderous, but that was not what I found.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-90059402880302417202017-06-08T18:29:07.351-05:002017-06-08T18:29:07.351-05:00"Strongly recommended to anyone with a basic ..."Strongly recommended to anyone with a basic sympathy for the form of the long Victorian novel" - finally, something pitched to my exact demographic! But there are so many books in that form. Should this one come before Pendennis, for instance?Rohanhttp://openlettersmonthly.com/novelreadingsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-5246470854959640052017-06-08T04:30:17.546-05:002017-06-08T04:30:17.546-05:00I loved this book and I didn't know anyone els...I loved this book and I didn't know anyone else besides myself who'd ever read it! It did have a very Victorian feel about it which is probably why I liked it so much. I've since purchased Imperial Palace at a library sale and hope to get to it this summer. Karen K.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13483190930383406559noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-14432109268795779392017-06-07T23:44:32.331-05:002017-06-07T23:44:32.331-05:00I've always wanted to read this novel, but not...I've always wanted to read this novel, but nothing you have written about it draws me closer to it (except for the comment about comedy). I don't see how I can work it in, given that I'm about to embark on an effort to know almost as much about Forster as I do about Dickens and Hardy, in preparation for guiding a seminar on "Maurice" in early 2018. Your comment that Bennett could be a link between Thackeray and Forster, however, intrigues me, especially your emphasis on "Victorian" as you apply it (indirectly) to Forster, who has never seemed to me to be quite of the Victorian age. And after you read "Maurice" and the unpublished stories in "The Life to Come" you realize that you have to re-read ALL of Forster (which I haven't yet done) with a new code book in mind. That said, have safe travels as I hope to, since I'm a few weeks away from embarking on a journey to Oxford to study Mary Queen of Scots at Merton College, and then to Iceland with my husband. So good to see you back at the blog.cwilson284https://www.blogger.com/profile/01095943424268993611noreply@blogger.com