Put off your maiden blushes
I recently re-watched Kenneth Branagh’s splendid adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V. The entire film (and play) is wonderful, but I’m especially fond of the interaction between Henry and Catherine in Act 5, Scene 2, in which he, with charmingly clumsy sweetness, tries to convince her to marry him. Branagh and Emma Thompson are fantastic together [...]
Jeeves, the omniscient valet
From The Paris Review‘s 1975 interview with P.G. Wodehouse: INTERVIEWER How did you create Jeeves, then? WODEHOUSE I only intended to use him once. His first entrance was: “Mrs. Gregson to see you, sir,” in a story called “Extricating Young Gussie.” He only had one other line, “Very good, sir. Which suit will you wear?” [...]
W.H. Auden reading his “As I Walked Out One Evening”
A recommendation: close your eyes and listen to Auden read his “As I Walked Out One Evening”. It’s a hauntingly lovely poem and Auden’s carefully measured cadence and precise diction make its melancholic beauty all the more pronounced and moving: As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement [...]
So as to choose
One of my favorite literary passages of all time, from Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady: “Young girls here–in decent houses–don’t sit alone with the gentlemen late at night.” “You were very right to tell me then,” said Isabel. “I don’t understand it, but I’m very glad I know it.” “I shall always tell [...]
Hurrah, he’s human!
A wonderful little excerpt from a 1972 interview with John Berryman (published in
“Bronte Sisters power up!”
Brontë Sisters Power Dolls: DO WANT! (Via 3 Quarks Daily)
Martin on Kingsley
Oh goodness, I love this. From Martin Amis‘s Experience: I am a novelist trained to use experience for other ends. Why should I tell the story of my life? I do it because my father is dead now, and I always knew I would have to commemorate him. He was a writer, and I am [...]
Amis and Auden on form and style
Yay! The Paris Review‘s site now has a complete interviews archive. Over the past few days, I’ve become quite addicted to downloading/reading interviews from the archive and thought that I’d share thematically-related and spot-on bits from two of my favorites, “The Art of Fiction: Kingsley Amis” and “The Art of Poetry: W.H. Auden”: INTERVIEWER: What [...]
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