Friday 8 March 2013

More Women than Men

An interesting piece in this week's Spectator - The Birth of the Walking Book Club by Emily Rhodes (it's on the website, but behind a paywall). Miss Rhodes has set up a book club where - instead of sitting around with wine and takeaway curry and talking about their families - members take a health-giving walk on Hampstead Heath while they actually, you know, talk about books! What's more, these books are not the latest self-nominating 'book club' books but genuinely worthwhile titles from the 20th-century past by writers who are now less fashionable and even in danger of being forgotten - the likes of Muriel Spark, Elizabeth Taylor, Penelope Fitzgerald. The funny thing is that every writer Emily Rhodes mentions is a woman - but then I'm not that surprised. When I look back at my own reading - specifically at the English novelists I've discovered/rediscovered in recent years - I find the list is overwhelmingly female (keen-eyed readers will note that this post shares its title with an Ivy Compton-Burnett novel I wrote about a while ago). The male novelists are far fewer in number, and almost all American. Does this tell us something? It would surely be a caricature to present 20th-century criticism in England as a story of overinflating male literary reputations while undervaluing equally (or more) talented women novelists - or would it? I've been trying to make a list of 20th-century male English novelists whom I'd regard as underrated, neglected or worthy of rediscovery, and frankly I'm not getting very far... Has anyone got any suggestions? (Not Patrick Hamilton, please.)  

8 comments:

  1. Henry Green, L.P. Hartley

    ReplyDelete
  2. John Cowper Powys perhaps? The library up the road has a few of his books but I don't see him often mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
  3. and William Gerhardie!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, I'm reading "The Polyglots" now. Which of course begs: Anthony Powell? Evelyn Waugh? (Too famous to be mentioned?) Also Graham Greene. William Trevor (not entirely Irish). I'm a New Yorker who happens to believe that American men rarely speak or write in English, but permit me to recommend Brian Morton, who reminds me (even though he hasn't much read her) of Elizabeth Taylor.

    One of my favorite writers is Elizabeth David. It's true that I am an amateur cook but that's not what I mean. I bring her up because of her adoration of Norman Douglas. Has anyone weathered "South Wind"?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah South Wind - I tried it once but didn't get far, I must admit... Brian Morton I don't know - will look into that one - thanks R.J!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Nige, so pleased you liked my article and v interesting to read this. I completely agree (of course) about how hard it is to find underrated 20th century English male writers - it's been a real problem trying to find them in order to steer the book club's reading away from such a feminine slant! In the end I decided to find lesser-known works by well-known men, so Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake, and As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee (although, granted that one is pretty well known, but such a favourite of mine I couldn't resist). Somewhat giving up on finding lesser-known English male writers, I decided writers in translation were a good avenue to explore - and there are several of those who are somewhat under-read, such as Stefan Zweig, Gregor von Rezzori, Antal Szerb, Ryu Murakami and Giorgio Bassani.

    ReplyDelete