It could be Alfred Lord Tennyson -maybe - possibly- could it ?
Hmmm - the answer may reside in the introduction to my copy of Persuasion - you could be right.
WH Auden, who venerated Tolkien, was notoriously unreliable as a literary critic. If indeed he said that Joyce seemed innocent as grass compared to Austen, he was trying to be clever, and his remark certainly doesn't bear examination.
I could bear to examine it - and would like to know more of the context.
little bunny what does smeg mean?
LOL! Nothing, supposedly. It is a manufactured Anglo-Saxon mono-syllabic swear word, meant to imitate its more famous cousins, f*** and s*** and such-like.
It was invented by the makers of a British science-fiction comedy TV show, "Red Dwarf". It sounds extremely rude, but is, supposedly, meaningless. One uses it exactly as one would use f*** etc.
However, I believe it is derived from "smegma" - and that is not entirely without a negative reaction, is it? LOL
You learn something new every day!
Didn't you know that one, Wilso?
Yes Red Dwarf was a very funny series -repeats still showing on Sky TV over here in Brit Land, so I was familiar with Smeg, it actually sounds Liverpudlian I think.
Deb,
There is some truth to what Larry said concerning Auden's comment on Jane Austen and James Joyce.
It is taken from his "Letter to Lord Byron," often seen simply as a private and frivolous exchange with a dead writer. However, the poem is the "central thread" of the travel book Letters from Iceland, a 1937 "collage" co-authored by Auden and Louis MacNeice. The book is carefully researched and incorporates a great deal of factual knowledge about Iceland. The letters to Byron represent sustained reflection on the present moment, and as a result Byron becomes at once model and listener. The comedy of the poem, may be a protective strategy.
Here is an excert from the poem including the comments I mentioned:-
A Letter To Lord Byron, W. H. Auden
"...
There is one other author in my pack
For some time I debated which to write to.
Which would least likely send my letter back?
But I decided I'd give a fright to
Jane Austen if I wrote when I'd no right to,
And share in her contempt the dreadful fates
Of Crawford, Musgrove, and of Mr. Yates.
Then she's a novelist. I don't know whether
You will agree, but novel writing is
A higher art than poetry altogether
In my opinion, and success implies
Both finer character and faculties
Perhaps that's why real novels are as rare
As winter thunder or a polar bear.
...
I must remember, though, that you were dead
Before the four great Russians lived, who brought
The art of novel writing to a head;
The help of Boots had not been sought.
But now the art for which Jane Austen fought,
Under the right persuasion bravely warms
And is the most prodigious of the forms.
She was not an unshockable blue-stocking;
If shades remain the characters they were,
No doubt she still considers you as shocking.
But tell Jane Austen, that is if you dare,
How much her novels are beloved down here.
She wrote them for posterity, she said;
'Twas rash, but by posterity she's read.
You could not shock her more than she shocks me;
Beside her Joyce seems innocent as grass.
It makes me most uncomfortable to see
An English spinster of the middle-class
Describe the amorous effects of 'brass',
Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety
The economic basis of society.
..."
Hiama - interesting- I wondered if that was something of what was meant - or her unblinking unsentimentality...
Jane really was highly thought of, witness this from Sir Walter Scott:-
"Read again, for the third time at least, Miss Austen's finely written novel of 'Pride And Prejudice'. That young Lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big Bow-Wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary common-place things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!"
The Diary of Sir Walter Scott
(March 14, 1826)
Indeed - I second that sentiment.
I wonder, is she much studied in literature degrees now?
Dlowan, now that this thread seems to have run its course, I'd like to put in a pitch for Anthony Trollope. I've only read seven of his fifty some novels, but that's enough to permit me to make a few general statements and some comparison to J.A.
Early in his career as a writer, Austen was Trollope's favorite novelist. His novels clearly show his dependance on her. They both wrote about the people around them and whom they had been able to observe. Trollope was very keen on describing in detail the whole mental process of the characters who were moving the story along. Although he did not describe women as well as Austen did (what man could?), he probably described women better than she described men. They both poked fun at the manners and foibles of churchmen, politicians, lawyers, the nobility, etc.
I think Trollope was especially good at setting out a sort of unsavory character who was saved from being a villain by the fact that he had a conscience, and wanted to do right, but who was propelled into deep troubles by the flaws in his character; the end result of the actions of these men were as devastating as if they had been villains. I think of Crosbe in The Small House at Allington and Sowerby in Framley Parsonage. If an outright villain is wanted, we could mention the Rev. Slope.
Many of his descriptions of the decadent nobility are priceless.
Well, I won't go on and on, but if anyone has read Austen several times and is looking for something else along that line, I recommend Trollope. The six novels referred to as The Barsetshire Series are a wonderful place to start.
When you're done with Trollope, move right into the novels of Thackeray!
I confess I have read no Trollope - but "Vanity Fair" is one of my favourite novels of all time!
Any particualr Trollope you would recommend to a "sampler", Hazlitt? I take it you like Hazlitt also?
I do not have a favorite, but Barchester Towers was the first one I read, and I was hooked. After that I like Doctor Thorne and then Framley Parsonage.
Barchester Towers besides being a good read will introduce you to characters you'll meet again in the other 5 Barsetshire books.
These six were written between 1855 and 1867
The Warden
Barchester Towers
Doctor Thorne
Framley Parsonage
The Small House at Allington
The Last Chronicle of Barset
Dream, Yes, Thackery is a wonderful author. Who, once having read
Vanity Fair, could ever forget Becky Sharpe or the battle of Waterloo?
Re: Trollope and Austin
Dlowan, as a result of reading this thread I Talked Mrs. Hazlitt into reading a Jane Austin novel: Emma (I think I mentioned earlier that she reads to me. Being retired, we have time for such things). We are at present about half way through the book, and it is delightful.
I won't make up my mind for sure until we've read a couple more of her novels, but there are some ways in which I like Trollope better. I think that he gives the reader a wider range of experiences: he takes us into the offices of government agencies so that we see how things work there; we find out about money lenders; his characters hang about taverns; there are wily seductive women and crafty treacherous men, all far more dangerous than any I've encountered so far in Austin. Trollope has an especially good way of drawing a villainous person who has just enough good qualities to make the reader a touch sorry to see himer come onto evil times. So far, with Austin, all the action is taking place within the confines of the parlor. What Austin does so well, and what Trollope can do too, is to infuse these parlor intrigues with interest, urgency, and importance. She, or they, make us realize that a lot of what is important in our lives does occur in the parlor.
Yeppies - my point exactly at the intro to the thread!
Hazlitt, you make Trollope sound so interesting I had quite forgotten will start reading the 6 again
As an aside Trollope was John Major's, our last Prime Minister before Blair, favourite author
