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----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 4:48 PM Subject: Re: Book Review- Moby Dick > > Not entirely in agreement with this, Rob, tho' I know what you mean. The > > Moby isn't quite up to the pitch of the Karamazov, it can seem a little > > theatrical and neurotically narrow by comparison, while you could hardly > > call Middlemarch or Great Expectations or The Mayor of Casterbridge > examples > > of the higher gossip. > > Well, to stand by my casuals, I +would+ call _Middlemarch_ exactly the > higher gossip -- Beatrice Webb before her time. Net curtains with attitude. Um, bits of Middlemarch do fall into your area of objection, Rob, but old Featherstonehaugh's deathbed is worthy of Tolstoy, and that marvellous visit to the billiard room in the pub, written by a Victorian woman remember, and as for the horse-trading details, no net curtains there at all. My critique of it would be along the lines of it succumbing to wish-fulfilment at times, fantasy hiding behind the realism. Anyhow, it's a Warwickshire book, so excuse me, how dare you!! > Hardy, yeah, I'll give you --Little Tom was trying there. But the pomes are > better. And Jude and Tess (or Tess and Jude) are +so+ screaming depressing. I wasn't defending either Jude or Tess, so there! > > Dickens is perhaps the closest. Though I wouldn't myself pick Pip's Fortunes > as the keynote -- Little Dorrit? Bleak House? I really do think Pirrip's transformations, especially with the original bleak ending intact, are the best thing the English Vistorian novel ever did. Some of CD's other stuff is brilliant, but none so sustained and integrated as GE. > > Scott? Lanark? Cloud Howe? [NO ONE bloody mentions the General Strike -- > maybe too close to home, even still. My grandaddy blacklegged on the > Glasgow trams in 26. How do you deal with that?] I only used examples from 19th century English English fiction, as that was what I thought you had primarily in mind, but Cloud Howe, Lanark and mebbe the Chancer would get votes from me anytime. I'd also give a thumbs up to Janine, 1982 and Poor Things. While the English had at least the Rainbow and Under the Volcano. Tis true, the General Strike has been written out of history, in our lifetimes, Robbie. Best Dave > > But what does come up against The Brothers? Not even (pace Matthew) Trish. > Dat's the biggie. Tolstoy gossiped, Dostoevsky wrote novels. > > Robinette. >