#AmReading MAURICE GUEST by #HenryHandelRichardson, aka Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, born in Melbourne in 1870.
Started it this morning, but only read the first page. Loved the unfamiliar use of "tell off" & the alliteration in this bit: "and on descending the shallow steps, they told off into groups, where all talked at once, with lively gesticulation."
Just finished Ch 1 & would keep reading, but I've had a few beers & about to nod off. Excerpt from the end of the chapter follows:
Maurice not about to let his dream of a musical life be derailed by disapproving parents:
"What was art to them but an empty name, a pastime for the drones & idlers of existence? How could he set up his ambitions before them, to be bowled over like so many ninepins? When at length..he was mastered by a healthier spirit of self-assertion..he was only enabled to stand firm by summoning to his aid all the strengthening egoism..latent in every more or less artistic nature." #AmReading MAURICE GUEST
Technically an #AustralianWriter, Henry Handel Richardson lived mainly in Europe. Bracketing writers by nationality got me thinking about what "Australian" writer #BrianCastro said:
“I think..one’s writing is far more identified with a style..with writers..you admire & who have gone before you than with a national, ethnic, or religious belonging. It’s not necessarily where you come from, it’s where you read from.”
Where do you read from?
What’s your textuality?
My #stencil of Brian from 2010
Maurice settles in to Leipzig & starts spilling & oversharing:
"An almost physical need of communication made itself felt in him; he spoke with a volubility that was foreign to him, began his sentences with a confidential 'You see', & said things at which he himself was amazed ... His companion looked at him curiously. She had expected a casual answer to her casual words, a surface frankness ... she did not care for people who gave themselves away at a word."
#AmReading MAURICE GUEST
Reminds me of another unpopular spiller, Christian Buddenbrook in #ThomasMann's BUDDENBROOKS:
"'Sometimes I find Christian a little strange,' said Madame Grünlich ... 'He talks so, somehow. He goes so unnaturally into detail."
"'Yes,' said Tom, 'I understand what you mean very well...Christian is very incautious...something is lacking in him...he begins to be garrulous...& tells his most intimate thoughts...Christian busies himself too much with himself, with what goes on in his own inside."
Paul Filev