Stendhal is exhausting and bracing because his energy is relentless and directed relentlessly to one end: the refusal of … More
Tag: Realism
220. (Willa Cather)
It’s not only re-reading Willa Cather’s The Professor’s House at the same time as reading the final volumes of Proust’s novel … More
161. (William Gaddis)
Though The Recognitions may have overwhelmed more powerfully, submerging and clinging with an undercurrent, JR (so far; nearing a half-way … More
159. (William Gaddis)
T.S. Eliot’s claim that Henry James had a mind so fine that no idea could violate it might be misunderstood … More
158. (George Eliot)
Six, and possibly seven, models were available for the realist novel in the nineteenth century. First, the novel of social … More
150. (Cao Xueqin)
This morning, I deleted, for the first time, one of the posts on this blog, the most recent, on Marguerite … More
115. (Italo Svevo)
Italo Svevo, whose talent was recognized and whose career was partially rescued by Joyce, is not much read nowadays. Joyce’s … More
96. (Gustave Flaubert)
The late nineteenth century saw the dominance of theories that, founded on empirical principles, nonetheless soon exceeded them: evolution, psychoanalysis, … More
80. (James Joyce)
A third and final try at the puzzle of variations of style in Ulysses, starting once more with the stopped … More
75. (Émile Zola)
Here is the second part of the Zola post; undoubtedly shorter, as the fire of fresh reading has sputtered. But … More
Critical Provisions 