Here's a balm for your critical pains ;)

[MlledeLaPlumeBleu]

Hey writers-

If anyone out there is smarting from a less-than-favorable appraisal of your heartfelt literary efforts, you're in good company.

I thought these might take the sting out a bit:

A review of Anton Chekov, 1949:

"If you were to ask me what Uncle Vanya was about, I would say about as much as I can take."
(Robert Garland, Journal American)


A review of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1871:

"A hoary-headed and toothless baboon." (Thomas Carlyle, collected works)


On Euripedes

"A cliche anthologist...and maker of ragamuffin manikins" (Aristophanes, The Thesmophoriazusae) 411 B.C.


On the immortal "Madam Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert:

"Monsieur Flaubert is not a writer." (Le Figaro)

and there's plenty more where that came from.....

 

[Quasimodem]

There is a legendary book called "The Stuffed Owl" which is an anthology of poetry, all by world class, and world famous poets . . . having a VERY bad day.

I have never been able to lay hands on a copy, but have seen it quoted twice in other published works.

If anyone actually has it to hand, I would be interested in hearing excerpts.

 

[Guest]

Early on Va. Woolf found James Joyce's emphasis on "indecency" disturbing, but as she made the voyage out further into Ulysses, she wrote:

"Never did I read such tosh. As for the first two chapters we will let them pass, but the 3rd 4th 5th 6th - merely the scratching of pimples on the body of the bootboy at Claridges."


Perdita

Virginia Woolf

 

[MlledeLaPlumeBleu]

Brava-

I have another Woolf quote regarding Ulysses, from Virginia's diary:

"I finished Ulysses and think it is a misfire. The book is diffuse. It is brackish. It is pretentious. It is underbred, not only in the obvious but in the literary sense. A first rate writer, I mean, respects writing too much to be tricky."

mlle

 

[MathGirl]

I have another Woolf quote regarding Ulysses,

Awww, who's afraid of ............?
MG

 

[Guest]

In not so thoroughly modern times, two years after its Paris premiere, "Waiting for Godot" was produced in English, and directed by Peter Hall at a small theater in London in 1955. The renowned critic, Bernard Levin, wrote:

"Mr Samuel Beckett (an Irishman who used to be Joyce's secretary and who writes in French, a combination which should make anybody smell a rat) has produced a really remarkable piece of twaddle."

For the record: Beckett did help Joyce in some secretarial manner mostly to be around him, to work with him; but to call him Joyce's secretary, as we understand the position, is a disservice and exaggeration.

Perdita

Charlie Chaplin

 

[Sabledrake]

An early review of "Wuthering Heights" wondered how anyone had been able to actually sit down and write such a thing without committing suicide.

Naturally, upon hearing this in a documentary on the Bronte sisters, I wasted no time checking it out of the library! Turned out to be one of the best books I've ever experienced, superbly written, just all-around great stuff. But I guess I can see why it was a shocker for readers of the time.

What was funny was that at the same time I was working on my "Neglected Son" stories, and a feedback actually remarked that Heathcliff was a more sympathetic character than my protagonist, Chet, turned out to be.

Sabledrake

 

[Guest]

Why don't you write books people can read?"

-- in a letter from Nora Joyce to her husband.