Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric
No ... not a philistine ... just born and raised in a different time. In terms of the novel .... it doesn't really come on the scene until 1740, with "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded", which presented major problems for the reader, ones which were brilliantly ridiculed in "Shamela" (1741), probably written by Fielding, although he never admitted authorship. Like modern prose fiction, works from earlier periods follow certain "parochial rules", satisfy various expectations. Some, of course, like some works of pictoral art, or some musical works achieve a sort of timelessness, their popularity sometimes underlined by their survival. If we look at Chaucer, for example, his works survive because he somehow transcends the limitations of his age. One would think that the only guy writing in the late Middle Ages was Chaucer ... well, maybe Langland, and whoever it was who wrote "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" ... but this, of course, isn't true. I think it's time to stop this ramble before I get into a discussion of Cervantes and Aphra Behn   |
Thank you Professor Slater! I liked the Green Knight...
I've got lots of unread books on my shelves, filed in with the ones I have read (I never get rid of books!). I've turned them upside down so I know where they are. One day I might get round to reading Chaucer, Malory etc etc. Trouble is I keep buying new books - well not new, usually secondhand, but you know what I mean...