APS TOGETHER
Day 27
New Grub Street by George GissingChapter 27
December 2, 2023 by Yiyun Li
Reardon’s reminiscence about the sunset in Athens and his complaint about the “public school-men, University men, club men, society men”: had he been born with money, at least he could be a rich mediocre writer. To be a poor writer of mediocre quality is rather a tragedy.
“Again and again work-girls have said to me: ‘Oh, I don’t like that book; it’s nothing but real life.’”
This reminds me of a conversation years ago with a high-school classmate, when I first began publishing in English. He said, “But do you know how to write about the rich and the aristocratic? No, then you’ll never become a real writer!”
Reardon, upon learning Amy’s of inheritance:
“Ah! if this had happened in the first year of his marriage, what more blessed man than he would have walked the earth!”
OMG. I really have very little respect for Reardon, whose meager imagination not only makes him a terrible fiction writer but also a terrible reader of life.
