—The Times has published a sort of interview with William Boyd on the occasion of the publication of his latest novel, Gabriel’s Moon. Here’s an excerpt:
There is no point attempting to whitewash old attitudes. Trying to tidy up the bad behaviour of novelists of the past is misguided and fundamentally a waste of time. But you can certainly alert people that opinions expressed in these books are not opinions we have in polite society today. Evelyn Waughâs Scoop is full of racism. But you canât possibly go back to Scoop, remove all that and represent it as Evelyn Waughâs novel. You have to take the rough with the smooth.
The US edition will be published in December. The entire article can be viewed at this link.
—The Guardian has posted an article bemoaning the writing style of the Evening Standard’s new art critics and comparing them unfavorably with their predecessor, the late Brian Sewell:
Who knew the late art critic Brian Sewell was such a tediously cliched writer? Especially since some of the dead verbiage in the London Standardâs AI version of Sewell reviewing Van Gogh at the National Gallery has become common currency only since his death at 84 in 2015.
Give him credit, he had a voice. And it was a posh voice. Evidently the chatbot used by the Standard needs to be fed a lot more novels by Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell, some Latin perhaps, and a mouthful of plums before it can begin to resemble the public school-educated, Courtauld-trained Sewell, who started his career as the protege of the upper-class art historian and Soviet spy Anthony Blunt…
I seem to be missing the point unless the Guardian thinks the new Standard’s art criticism comes out sounding like an AI production. Or can it be the case that it really is? Here’s a link.
—The Oldie has reposted on its blog an article from last October by A N Wilson in which he also pines for the superior literary criticism of the recent past. Here’s an excerpt:
..Merely to name Powell, Muggeridge and Orwell is to recall an era of literary and journalistic life which seems in every way more interesting than the present scene.
Horizon â between 1939 and 1950. The small-circulation journal was the first to publish Evelyn Waughâs masterly account of American funerary customs, The Loved One.
Other contributors included AndrĂ© Gide, Rose Macaulay, Nancy Mitford, Elizabeth Bowen, WâH Auden and Kenneth Clark. BĂ©la BartĂłk wrote a piece for it, as did Barbara Hepworth. Distinguished as periodicals might have been in our day, weâve surely not seen anything to match this?…
The entire article can be read here.
–The Catholic World Report has a story about the re-issuance of the writings of Waugh’s friend, the priest, Dom Hubert van Zeller. Here’s an excerpt:
…Another fascinating aspect of Van Zellerâs life is his close friendships with other much better known Catholic authors, most notably the spiritual writer, scholar, and Bible translator Fr Ronald Knox; the Dominican author Fr Bede Jerret; and the novelist Evelyn Waugh, whose Brideshead Revisited has become a Catholic classic and features in many courses on modern literature.
Zeller recounts Waughâs reaction to his trip to America: asking Waugh what he thought of their mutual American acquaintance, who was to guide Zeller on his journey, Waugh responded: â[Heâs] American. He canât help it.â Of the same trip, Knox said, âYouâll hate it. They have meals out of heated cardboard boxesâŠâ But van Zeller loved America, and his ministry there gave him a new energyâwhich was fortunate, since he had a rather melancholic personality. Into the 1970s and â80s, van Zeller continued to write, and obtained permission (as many English priests at the time did) to continue celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass.
–Henley booksellers Jonkers have on offer the copy of Waugh’s pre-publication gift version of Brideshead Revisited that belonged to Diana Cooper. Here’s an excerpt from the offer:
First edition. One of fifty pre-publication copies, printed for the author for distribution amongst his friends. Original blue wrappers with yapp edges, with printed labels to upper cover, title label printed in blue, limitation label printed in red. Author’s presentation copy inscribed for Lady Diana Cooper, “For Diana / Too little, but I hope not too late / with love from / Evelyn.” A fine copy, exceptionally so, with the wrappers clean and bright and only the most trivial creasing and wear to the oversized parts. Endpapers foxed as often, but otherwise very clean. A superb copy…
The asking price is £95,000.00! I think that may be a record. Does any one recall a higher one?
