Yeah, critical respone is what is it. And popular response is what it is. But somehow or another, “classic” literature survives. If a book is still being read 150 years (or 250 years, or 500 years) after its first appearance, there’s probably a reason…
There are a couple of publishers that put out editions of books that were best-sellers 100 years ago or so that otherwise would have been forgotten, and I find it fun to go back from time to time and read what my great-great-grandmother might have read (does the name “Marie Corelli” mean anything to you? You’ve probably heard of Svengali, but have you ever read “Trilby”? When was the last time you read a novel centered around the French Foreign Legion?). There’s a saying “It’s remarkable how many books you don’t have to read if you just wait a year”, but it’s asking a bit too much of your average fiction reader to wait 50 years after publication to decide whether a book is worth reading or not.
That being said, my reaction to Henry Miller was probably similar to that of the reviewer you quoted…
Ah, Ushindi, I didn’t recognize any of them.
Yeah, critical respone is what is it. And popular response is what it is. But somehow or another, “classic” literature survives. If a book is still being read 150 years (or 250 years, or 500 years) after its first appearance, there’s probably a reason…
There are a couple of publishers that put out editions of books that were best-sellers 100 years ago or so that otherwise would have been forgotten, and I find it fun to go back from time to time and read what my great-great-grandmother might have read (does the name “Marie Corelli” mean anything to you? You’ve probably heard of Svengali, but have you ever read “Trilby”? When was the last time you read a novel centered around the French Foreign Legion?). There’s a saying “It’s remarkable how many books you don’t have to read if you just wait a year”, but it’s asking a bit too much of your average fiction reader to wait 50 years after publication to decide whether a book is worth reading or not.
That being said, my reaction to Henry Miller was probably similar to that of the reviewer you quoted…