John Halperin

A very interesting biography; lots of information I would never have guessed. Austen sounds like she was not a particularly nice person, even cutting her some slack for the many disappointments she had in her life. I think I agree with one of the quotes of Virgina Woolf in this book: Given her sharp tongue, I wouldn't want to have been left alone in a room with her.

2350 Novelists in Their Youth, by John Halperin (read 15 Dec 1990) This is a 1990 book by an American English professor now at Vanderbilt. It studies the youth of six novelists. I found the discussion very stimulating and the book made me think I should read more of these novelists. I have read a lot of Henry James, but there are works of his I should read. I have read Thomas Hardy's major works but not Desperate Remedies, which the book says is "spellbinding reading." George Gissing , born show more 12 Nov 1857, was expelled from school at 18 for stealing, lived with and eventually married a drunken prostitute.. The most impressive account in the book is the one about Joseph Conrad. Edith Wharton is the fifth novelist discussed. The sixth is W. Somerset Maugham. This has been a most worthwhile book. show less