--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, William Ahearn
<williamahearn@...> wrote:
>
>
> --- Nathan Cain <IndieCrime@...>
wrote:
>
> > I was suggesting that, in certain cases, Henry
James
> > might still be read for
> > pleasure. That's an important
distinction.
>
> I just think that your dismissal of James was
off-hand
> and gratuitous and I'm not a James fan. He wrote
some
> books you didn't like? My vanity bonfire would
take
> down the island of Manhattan if it contained all
the
> bad books by good writers I chose to toss in.
The
> ultimate decider of all this is that James will go
on
> no matter what either of us say here.
Well, James's style could be called the opposite of
hardboiled... but The Turn of the Screw is a fantastic novel.
Some of the short stories have also interested me. All of
this is not to deny that James's prose suffers from
inflationary forces, but he's written good stuff despite that
handicap.
Best,
mrt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 27 Oct 2007 EDT