jenks
thread death
Don't know if there will be any takers for this but here we go, nonetheless.
I have just finished James Woods' latest book 'How Fiction Works' in which he places Flaubert as the founder of modernism with the invention of free indirect style.
I just wondered what the readers on this board think of him. For me, he is one of the most essential writers, combinig that phenomenal ability to tell a story with a total commitment to the art of prose. But I can imagine others might find him a bit bloodless and rather mannered.
Also he kind of invents the stereotype of the artist sweating over every last comma, which for many is also seen as a kind an imposture.
Finally he is a representative of that great English love affair with a certain kind of French writer - Stendhal but not Hugo for example. A world view which priveliges the old world writers of the nineteeenth century over all newcomers.
Anyway - if you're interested...
I have just finished James Woods' latest book 'How Fiction Works' in which he places Flaubert as the founder of modernism with the invention of free indirect style.
I just wondered what the readers on this board think of him. For me, he is one of the most essential writers, combinig that phenomenal ability to tell a story with a total commitment to the art of prose. But I can imagine others might find him a bit bloodless and rather mannered.
Also he kind of invents the stereotype of the artist sweating over every last comma, which for many is also seen as a kind an imposture.
Finally he is a representative of that great English love affair with a certain kind of French writer - Stendhal but not Hugo for example. A world view which priveliges the old world writers of the nineteeenth century over all newcomers.
Anyway - if you're interested...