Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Ferris
Thanks for that Nabokov quote, Aaron.
ITA on Melville’s novels -- works of immense genius. He also wrote a fair amount of poetry that Jarrell admired, IIRC. I’ll have to give that a go again, sometime. I remember him being kinda lumpy as a poet, as I remember Emerson… I agree on Henry James, who often uses so much of the page to convey so small a thought. I’ll admit he is a smooth writer and does often find le mot juste. I prefer Hardy as a novelist to Hardy as a poet. His novels always delight me. I found his range limited as a poet, as I recall, usually gloomy and morose. But then, he wrote SO MUCH. Maybe I missed the patches of Sun.
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I prefer Hardy the novelist as well. I'll never forget
Jude the Obscure. I admit, though, I have no collection of his poems, and only know what I've seen anthologized- which I've liked. I loaned
Tess of the D'urbervilles to a lady friend and she gave it back to me in a huff, and went on and on about how she hated Tess, calling her a weakling and worse. I think my friend thought it was a romance novel. She read it in two sittings. She also hated my favorite novel*,
Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco.
Amazingly, we stayed together for four years.
*Alright, third favorite, after
Moby Dick and
Adam Bede.