Re: Notes from the river bottom

Cecilia --

Here's the table of contents for the page you gave me:

>THE COMMON READER
>"JANE EYRE" AND "WUTHERING HEIGHTS"
>THE PATRON AND THE CROCUS
>THE MODERN ESSAY
>THE DEATH OF THE MOTH
>EVENING OVER SUSSEX: REFLECTIONS IN A MOTOR CAR
>THREE PICTURES
>OLD MRS. GREY
>STREET HAUNTING: A LONDON ADVENTURE
>JONES AND WILKINSON
>"TWELFTH NIGHT" AT THE OLD VIC
>MADAME DE S?VIGN?
>THE HUMANE ART
>TWO ANTIQUARIES: WALPOLE AND COLE
>THE REV. WILLIAM COLE: A LETTER
>THE HISTORIAN AND "THE GIBBON"
>REFLECTIONS AT SHEFFIELD PLACE
>THE MAN AT THE GATE
>SARA COLERIDGE
>"NOT ONE OF US"
>HENRY JAMES
> 1. WITHIN THE RIM
> 2. THE OLD ORDER
> 3. THE LETTERS OF HENRY JAMES
>GEORGE MOORE
>THE NOVELS OF E. M. FORSTER
>MIDDLEBROW
>THE ART OF BIOGRAPHY
>CRAFTSMANSHIP
>A LETTER TO A YOUNG POET
>WHY?
>PROFESSIONS FOR WOMEN
>

I don't see "Modern Fiction" on there, but do see "Modern Essays." Is
that the one you're talking about?

What's the difference between an intellectual and a social snob? I
wasn't really accusing her of any particular type of snobbery, just
saying she was a snob. From what I've read of her bios she does seem to
have moved in fairly exclusive circles, had problems with the help
occasionally, but don't know that she was particularly rude to the lower
class to their faces.

That Guardian article looks good. This line:

>The idea that one may like Bennett and Woolf, Woolf and James Joyce was not possible for her.
>
I don't think is completely accurate. She had her criticisms of Joyce,
but places herserlf in the same class of writer as Joyce in her "Modern
Fiction" essay, in oppositon to Galsworthy, H.G. Wells, and I think
Bennett too.

I like the criticism of the film "The Hours" to the extent it's deserved
(I don't know, I haven't seen the film). Woolf did indeed like having a
good time. Her nephew records a party in which her and her sister (the
biographer's mother :) ) ran around topless for awhile.

I almost choked when I read this line:

>Not her styles, her
>experiments, her sometimes intemperate pronouncements, but simply, her
>existence, her bravery, her wit, her ability to look at the situation of
>women without bitterness.
>
"ability to look at the situation of women without bitterness"? Has she
not read "A Room of One's Own" or "Three Guineas." They're both
brilliant essays, but I wouldn't say they're free of bitterness.

I really like what Lessing says about Woolf's literary criticism. It did
more to help me understand modernist fiction than anything Pound or
Eliot ever wrote.

Here's an online abstract of the essay:

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:BGj8sZY6nxAJ:www.hirojo-u.ac.jp/~english/modern_fiction.doc+Woolf+and+%22Modern+Fiction%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

If I'm confusing it with anything, it's with "Mr. Bennett and Mrs.
Brown." I'll check my print copy tonight.

Jim

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Received on Tue Jul 8 13:52:08 2003