Literary fantasyfan Vote • February 2017

[sun surfer]

And the winner is Aspects of the Novel! Bookpossum will have the discussion thread up soon.

This seems to be the year so far for revisiting previous winning authors (and nothing bad about that!). In all the years previous we'd never happened to have one but this year we've had two in the first two months - Tóibín from The Master to Nora Webster and now Forster from A Passage to India all the way back in the fledgling months of the club to Aspects of the Novel here five years later. Looking forward to the read!

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

It's probably close enough to the finish line for me to say that I loathe and despise FR Leavis. The English Department of Melbourne University was in thrall to him when I was there in the 1970s, and I only managed to complete the first year of what was going to be an English major before fleeing to the History Department to do extra History subjects to complete the degree. I was amused to learn recently that I was by no means alone in doing that.

Oh dear! You could've said that earlier than the finish line if you'd liked, although I understand your feeling on waiting. A long time ago in the club I remember posting early on about how much I disliked a nomination - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead - and I still feel a little bad when I think about it. Only a little though, heh.

[fantasyfan]

I'm afraid I made an unaccountable error about the date of Forster's work. It dates from his lectures at Cambridge in 1927.

My apologies. (VERY RED FACE).

I hope you all do enjoy the book.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by bfisher

I checked on the availability of a few of the titles in Canada, may be available elsewhere from other vendors (sorry, don't know how to travel)

The Chesterton is free here; I like the quality of the Adelaide epubs
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/che...in-literature/

The C.S. Lewis is available from Amazon.ca for $CDN 0.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Preface-Paradi.../dp/0195003454 $CDN 0.99
Kobo.ca wants me to buy his complete works - for a mere $500+


Yeats, The Man And The Masks $CDN 5.46
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01BPMZTV6

C.S. Lewis is in the public domain in Canada so the book can be found at Faded Page http://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php...ive%20Staples) for the benefit of those who live in life +50 countries.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by ekbell

C.S. Lewis is in the public domain in Canada so the book can be found at Faded Page http://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php...ive%20Staples) for the benefit of those who live in life +50 countries.

Thanks for the Faded Page link.

[Bookpossum]

The thread is up and you can find it here

[Bookpossum]

I didn't think I should comment earlier and therefore influence others' votes - it's just my personal reaction to the man. Sorry fantasyfan!

[Bookworm_Girl]

Creative theme and choices, fantasyfan! I'm looking forward to the selection. Thanks for volunteering this month.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

I didn't think I should comment earlier and therefore influence others' votes - it's just my personal reaction to the man. Sorry fantasyfan!

I quite understand your attitude, Bookpossum. I'll tell you how I first came across him. One year I noticed that Hard Times had been made the prescribed novel for Senior Honours English. I had always considered it a second rate novel--good in spots but not an example of Dickens at his best. As it turned out I found that an examiner in the Department had read The Great Tradition and decided that if Leavis said that this was the greatest work Dickens had produced, it must be so. Now As Middleton-Murray said, Leavis does reveal unexpected hidden treasures in that book but Dickens's greatest work it most assuredly is not.

This is the problem with Leavis. Hard Times suited his analytical approach. The other works of Dickens he dismissed as "entertainment". That is why he also dismissed Fielding. Leavis's approach just doesn't work with that novelist. And of course, he doesn't really know how to handle Emily Bronte at all. Any tradition that cannot include writers of the stature of those he ignores has a problem of being labelled The Great Tradition. Austen, James, Eliot and Conrad do indeed form a genuine novelistic tradition--but is it the only great one? I wouldn't think so--though that is only my opinion.

So why did I choose him? Well, he is certainly a brilliant analyst of the writers he likes. He is also sometimes so wrong-headed and annoying that I think he would be certain of being an interesting focus for a book club discussion.

But I confess that I am glad that Forster (whom Leavis dismissed as a critic) won.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

So why did I choose him? Well, he is certainly a brilliant analyst of the writers he likes. He is also sometimes so wrong-headed and annoying that I think he would be certain of being an interesting focus for a book club discussion.

I haven't read any Leavis yet but I too thought the book could spur an interesting discussion if selected. Although now I'm glad it didn't win since Bookpossum has such a viscerally negative opinion of it! As to Hard Times, I haven't read it either, but I suppose it's all a matter of opinion. Outlooks and even general consensuses can and do change and are always subjective. Just because a large majority wouldn't choose Hard Times as Dickens' best, I wouldn't necessarily dismiss someone who thought it was. That said, when one is so judgmentally opinionated as Leavis seems to be, one should also expect judgmental opinions of oneself as a matter of course, heh.

[Bookpossum]

Yes, I can see your point about interesting discussions, fantasyfan. Like you, I am glad that Forster won and am looking forward to starting on him today.

Thanks for coming up with such an interesting theme and list of books.