Not a signal of agreement, just amusement:
• “Carl Sagan writes better than this.” — James Wood, exasperated by Don DeLillo’s use of the “inflationary mode” in Falling Man. (via Jenny Davidson.)
• “Hughes is a perfect example of what happens when a poet, though possessing none of the art necessary to turn a plain old messed-up life into literature, is the sun in her own Copernican system (she puts the Sol back in solipsism).” — William Logan on Frieda Hughes’ book of poems, Forty-Five.
• “I saw two casts, one led by Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg, the other by Paloma Herrera and Angel Corella. Murphy is not an actress. (When she’s happy, she dances with her mouth open; when she’s sad, she closes it.)” — Joan Acocella writing about the Peter Martins’ production of Romeo + Juliet.
Archives for July 12, 2007
CAAF: “Published sumptuously at his own expense.”
Last fall, when The Letter opera was still a wee twinkle, I had tapas with Terry and Maud in New York. It was a lovely sunny day, and we talked a lot about Somerset Maugham over lunch. Enough so that afterward I tried to track down a copy of “The Letter” at Three Lives. No luck, but I did get the first volume of Maugham’s collected short stories, containing the devastating story “Rain,” which I read over the next few days.
That set me off on a Maugham kick that lasted several months. The usual suspects: Human Bondage (half a great novel) and Cakes and Ale (a very happy re-read). The strangest entry in the Maugham-a-thon was a little-known novel called The Magician. Written early in Maugham’s career, it’s a purple, pulpish Gothic set in turn-of-the-century Paris. In it, two lovers are separated when the “sinister and repulsive” magician Oliver Haddo appears on the scene, sets his sights on the beautiful Margaret, bewitches her and draws her into a vile, debauched lifestyle abroad (to the modern reader the descriptions of this lifestyle will suggest that Margaret has gone Eurotrash). It just gets weirder from there. How weird? Secret-laboratory-of-succubi weird.
The Haddo character was modeled on Aleister Crowley, whom Maugham met while living in Paris. At the time, as Maugham writes in the foreword to The Magician, Crowley was “a voluminous writer of verse, which he published sumptuously at his own expense.” The two met several times “but never after I left Paris to return to London. Once, long afterwards, I received a telegram from him which ran as follows: ‘Please send twenty-five pounds at once. Mother of God and I starving. Aleister Crowley.’ I did not do so, and he lived on for many disgraceful years.”
The Magician was first published in 1908, then went out of print. It was reissued by Penguin in 1978, with Maugham penning the accompanying foreword, called “A Fragment of Autobiography.” He writes:
When, a little while ago, my publisher expressed a wish to reissue [The Magician], I felt that, before consenting to this, I really should read it again. Nearly fifty years had passed since I had done so, and I had completely forgotten it. Some authors enjoy reading their old works: some cannot bear to. Of these I am. When I have corrected the proofs of a book, I have finished with it, for good and all. I am impatient when people insist on talking to me about it; I am glad if they like it, but do not much care if they don’t. I am no more interested in it than in a worn-out suit of clothes that I have given away. It was thus with disinclination that I began to read The Magician. It held my interest, as two of my early novels, which for the same reason I have been obliged to read, did not. One, indeed, I simply could not get through. …
TT: So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more information, click on the title.
Warning: Broadway shows marked with an asterisk were sold out, or nearly so, last week.
BROADWAY:
• Avenue Q * (musical, R, adult subject matter and one show-stopping scene of puppet-on-puppet sex, reviewed here)
• A Chorus Line * (musical, PG-13/R, adult subject matter, reviewed here)
• The Drowsy Chaperone (musical, G/PG-13, mild sexual content and a profusion of double entendres, reviewed here)
• Frost/Nixon * (drama, PG-13, some strong language, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)
• Old Acquaintance (comedy, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)
• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (musical, PG-13, mostly family-friendly but contains a smattering of strong language and a production number about an unwanted erection, reviewed here)
OFF BROADWAY:
• Beyond Glory (drama, PG-13, adult subject matter, reviewed here, closes Aug. 19)
• The Fantasticks (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here)
CLOSING SOON:
• 110 in the Shade * (musical, G, suitable for children old enough to enjoy a love story, reviewed here, closes July 29)
TT: Almanac
“I dare say I am compelled, unconsciously compelled, now to write volume after volume, as in past years I was compelled to go to sea, voyage after voyage. Leaves must follow upon each other as leagues used to follow in the days gone by, on and on to the appointed end, which, being Truth itself, is One–one for all men and for all occupations.”
Joseph Conrad, A Personal Record