Three Novels (Penguin Modern Classics) |
| |
|
|
Author:
Ronald Firbank
By Penguin Books Ltd
Average Customer Rating: 
|
|
Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780141182193
ISBN: 0141182199
Label: Penguin Books Ltd
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2000-04-06
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Studio: Penguin Books Ltd |
|
Better than Waugh, 2001-06-07
Evelyn Waugh, in my view, was a pale shadow of Firbank. Waugh's books often start off strongly influenced by Firbank and gradually decline and fall. This is full strength, first pressing, first rate idiosyncratic fiction, long heralded by the likes of Michael Moorcock as an important influence on the New Worlds group and acknowledged as a specific influence on, for instance, Jerry Cornelius which in turn is considered the first 'cyberpunk' novel. It seems a long journey from Cardinal Pirelli and Sorrow in Sunlight to J.G.Ballard but both authors can be said to have rejected modernism for their own peculiar visions. I celebrate this publication. I can now give it to my nephews as required reading. This is wonderful, sometimes a little over-wrought, witty and bizarre fiction which deserves to be better read and which I suspect will be more appreciated in the 21st century than it was in the 20th.
In the beginning..., 2003-01-04
...was Ronald Firbank. And The Flower Beneath the Foot is reckoned by many to be his very best novel. Others claim that Cardinal Pirelli is his best. And, of course, some believe Sorrow in Sunlight is superior to all others. So in one volume you have three brilliant short novels. They have influenced writers from Evelyn Waugh (Decline and Fall) to Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast) to Michael Moorcock (Dancers at the End of Time). Yet none of these has the pure style of the original. Vintage Firbank is as satisfying and delicate and stimulating as the finest vintage Claret. It has none of the posturing of earlier fin-de-siecle writers but is probably the stepson of Oscar Wilde. It's probably fair to say sometimes that it is snobbery raised to the point of exquisite art. But it triumphs over any 'politically incorrect' drawbacks. He is certainly a writer who should be read by anyone who believes they know English literature. It is music. It is poetry. It is a glorious, bejewelled gown - landscape, character, language - all condensed into about 100 pages per novel. Swooning brilliance.
|
