Voracious Logophiles

it's forever

101 notes

book-aesthete: Three Volumes Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley - Malory’s Morte D’Arthur. New York: Dutton, 1927, limited to 1600 copies, publisher’s gilt cloth, t.e.g.; - Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley„ New York, 1920, numbered 233 of 500 and signed by the publisher, ornately stamped gilt publisher’s cloth; - A Second Book of Fifty Drawings, London, 1899, limited to 1,000 copies, red publisher’s cloth, pictorial gilt stamped, spine worn and faded, all titles illustrated throughout. For Katey.

book-aesthete:

Three Volumes Illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley
- Malory’s Morte D’Arthur. New York: Dutton, 1927, limited to 1600 copies, publisher’s gilt cloth, t.e.g.;
- Fifty Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley„ New York, 1920, numbered 233 of 500 and signed by the publisher, ornately stamped gilt publisher’s cloth;
- A Second Book of Fifty Drawings, London, 1899, limited to 1,000 copies, red publisher’s cloth, pictorial gilt stamped, spine worn and faded, all titles illustrated throughout.

For Katey.

12 notes

lareviewofbooks: Jessa Crispin from Bookslut considers the new book on Henry James from Michael Gorra: The problem with writing about Henry James is that everything has already been written. That is one reason more people are writing about Henry James the person these days — Henry James the homosexual, Henry James the virgin, Henry James the pederast, Henry James the impotent — than Henry James the writer. What could possibly be left to say about Henry James the writer? It has all been laid out, his novels, his theatre work, his stories, his essays have all been picked apart. He is The Master. He possessed genius unparalleled in his time. The end. Every time I think I am having an original thought about Henry James it turns out I am mistaken. Those precise, twisted father-daughter relationships in Washington Square andThe Golden Bowl, that is … oh really? 2,512 results on Questia already? Well, how about that section in The Tragic Muse when … okay, well fine. I guess I’ll just fuck off then. So I do not envy Michael Gorra’s task of trying to find a new way to write about Henry James and his beloved Portrait. His biography of that work, Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece, tries to avoid many of the pitfalls of biography, and Henry James’s biography in particular. For the most part, he leaves James’s willy out of the conversation, and that is a relief. And he is aware enough to largely avoid the biographer’s weakness for trying to find real life counterparts for every fictional character, or echoes of imaginative incidents in the writer’s personal experiences. He wisely admits the limitations of such an approach, writing, “Searching for some putative original allows us to see what was in fact created; the difference between the fictional page and the gravel of documentary truth can stand as a guide to artistic practice.” When Gorra does go looking for the gravel of documentary truth, he is looking mostly at the cities and places that housed James and his creativity as he worked on his book. Read the rest. Must read.

lareviewofbooks:

Jessa Crispin from Bookslut considers the new book on Henry James from Michael Gorra:

The problem with writing about Henry James is that everything has already been written. That is one reason more people are writing about Henry James the person these days — Henry James the homosexual, Henry James the virgin, Henry James the pederast, Henry James the impotent — than Henry James the writer. What could possibly be left to say about Henry James the writer? It has all been laid out, his novels, his theatre work, his stories, his essays have all been picked apart. He is The Master. He possessed genius unparalleled in his time. The end.

Every time I think I am having an original thought about Henry James it turns out I am mistaken. Those precise, twisted father-daughter relationships in Washington Square andThe Golden Bowl, that is … oh really? 2,512 results on Questia already? Well, how about that section in The Tragic Muse when … okay, well fine. I guess I’ll just fuck off then.

So I do not envy Michael Gorra’s task of trying to find a new way to write about Henry James and his beloved Portrait. His biography of that work, Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece, tries to avoid many of the pitfalls of biography, and Henry James’s biography in particular. For the most part, he leaves James’s willy out of the conversation, and that is a relief. And he is aware enough to largely avoid the biographer’s weakness for trying to find real life counterparts for every fictional character, or echoes of imaginative incidents in the writer’s personal experiences. He wisely admits the limitations of such an approach, writing, “Searching for some putative original allows us to see what was in fact created; the difference between the fictional page and the gravel of documentary truth can stand as a guide to artistic practice.” When Gorra does go looking for the gravel of documentary truth, he is looking mostly at the cities and places that housed James and his creativity as he worked on his book.

Read the rest.

Must read.

0 notes

The Voracious Logophiles are reading Middlemarch by George Eliot for their December book club selection.

The Voracious Logophiles are reading Middlemarch by George Eliot for their December book club selection.

6,437 notes

There is always one person who you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it always happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of those lovable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable… The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they’re often just the person you happen to meet the first time you really, really, want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about everyone else.
Chuck Klosterman (Killing Yourself to Live)

(Source: quotethat, via scribnerbooks)

1,759 notes

You are still young, free…Do yourself a favor. Before it’s too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late.
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake (via bookmania)