Quick post today - slowly reading through the Paris Review Interviews, and came across this great, slightly catty, bit from Rebecca West (who was interviewed by Marina Warner):
MW: Do you do many drafts?
RW: I fiddle away a lot at them. Particularly if it's a fairly elaborate thing. I've never been able to do just one draft. That seems a wonderful thing. Do you know anyone who can?
MW: I think D. H. Lawrence did.
RW: You could often tell.
Ouch!
Ouch indeed! I've only read one of his works, I think, but that seemed to be true.
ReplyDeleteWonderfully catty!
ReplyDeleteI have an edition of Jane Eyre, for which Rebecca West wrote the introduction - and what a catty introduction it is too. It basically says that JE isn't as good as Wuthering Heights! Whether or not you agree with that (and I don't, personally), why write that in an introduction??
Lovely!
ReplyDelete