What do you think?
Rate this book
What Became of Jane Austen? and Other Questions
1972. First Edition Thus. 237 pages. Paperback book with pictorial cover. Pages and binding are presentable with no major defects. Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking. Overall a good condition item. Paper cover has mild edge-wear with light rubbing and creasing. Some light marking and tanning.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
About the author
Kingsley Amis
216 books561 followersBest known novels of British writer Sir Kingsley William Amis include
Lucky Jim
(1954) and
The Old Devils
(1986).
This English poet, critic, and teacher composed more than twenty-three collections, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered Martin Amis.
William Robert Amis, a clerk of a mustard manufacturer, fathered him. He began his education at the city of London school, and went up to college of Saint John, Oxford, in April 1941 to read English; he met Philip Larkin and formed the most important friendship of his life. After only a year, the Army called him for service in July 1942. After serving as a lieutenant in the royal corps of signals in the Second World War, Amis returned to Oxford in October 1945 to complete his degree. He worked hard and got a first in English in 1947, and then decided to devote much of his time.
Pen names: [authorRobert Markham|553548] and William Bill Tanner
This English poet, critic, and teacher composed more than twenty-three collections, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered Martin Amis.
William Robert Amis, a clerk of a mustard manufacturer, fathered him. He began his education at the city of London school, and went up to college of Saint John, Oxford, in April 1941 to read English; he met Philip Larkin and formed the most important friendship of his life. After only a year, the Army called him for service in July 1942. After serving as a lieutenant in the royal corps of signals in the Second World War, Amis returned to Oxford in October 1945 to complete his degree. He worked hard and got a first in English in 1947, and then decided to devote much of his time.
Pen names: [authorRobert Markham|553548] and William Bill Tanner
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 14, 2015
I frequently annoy people by saying that I don't see the point of reading books in translation. I should say that it's really Kingsley Amis's fault. I came across one of his essays at an impressionable age (I think it's in this collection, though I'm not 100% sure), and his argument seemed quite irrefutable.
"Would you want to read a paraphrase of Hamlet?" asks Amis. "No? Then why do you want to read literature in translation?"
Do you know: up to that moment, I'd read quite a lot of stuff in translation, but I've hardly done it since. I did however start reading much more literature in the original. He truly convinced me.
______________________________________
Many readers will no doubt be surprised to hear this, but until a few minutes ago I was unaware that paraphrases of Hamlet are, in fact, readily available on the Internet. For people as poorly informed as I was, here is the SparkNotes version of the soliloquy from Act 3, Scene 1:
I am trying to persuade Not to accompany me to the Miss Fête de Genève pageant on July 28. She asks if I have gone mad. It's a reasonable question, but I have never seen a beauty contest. I want to find out if it's the way Kingsley Amis describes it in another of these pieces.
Amis senior has somehow been persuaded to take part as a judge. He watches the girls do the catwalk bit. Most of them mince around with their ridiculous model walks, but one impresses him. She has a brisk, no-nonsense stride, rather as though she is going shopping or is about to catch a bus. He gives her a 10.
In the talent section, the girls say what their interests are. Kingsley writes them all down conscientiously: swimming, dancing, swimming and dancing, dancing, dancing, swimming, swimming and dancing. I may be misquoting slightly.
At the end, the judges all sum up their marks. The girl Kingsley liked most has come last, and the one he liked next most has come second to last.
"Would you want to read a paraphrase of Hamlet?" asks Amis. "No? Then why do you want to read literature in translation?"
Do you know: up to that moment, I'd read quite a lot of stuff in translation, but I've hardly done it since. I did however start reading much more literature in the original. He truly convinced me.
______________________________________
Many readers will no doubt be surprised to hear this, but until a few minutes ago I was unaware that paraphrases of Hamlet are, in fact, readily available on the Internet. For people as poorly informed as I was, here is the SparkNotes version of the soliloquy from Act 3, Scene 1:
The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nasty things that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once and for all? Dying, sleeping—that’s all dying is—a sleep that ends all the heartache and shocks that life on earth gives us—that’s an achievement to wish for. To die, to sleep—to sleep, maybe to dream. Ah, but there’s the catch: in death’s sleep who knows what kind of dreams might come, after we’ve put the noise and commotion of life behind us. That’s certainly something to worry about. That’s the consideration that makes us stretch out our sufferings so long. After all, who would put up with all life’s humiliations—the abuse from superiors, the insults of arrogant men, the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office, and the mistreatment good people have to take from bad—when you could simply take out your knife and call it quits? Who would choose to grunt and sweat through an exhausting life, unless they were afraid of something dreadful after death, the undiscovered country from which no visitor returns, which we wonder about without getting any answers from and which makes us stick to the evils we know rather than rush off to seek the ones we don’t? Fear of death makes us all cowards, and our natural boldness becomes weak with too much thinking. Actions that should be carried out at once get misdirected, and stop being actions at all. But shh, here comes the beautiful Ophelia. Pretty lady, please remember me when you pray.______________________________________
I am trying to persuade Not to accompany me to the Miss Fête de Genève pageant on July 28. She asks if I have gone mad. It's a reasonable question, but I have never seen a beauty contest. I want to find out if it's the way Kingsley Amis describes it in another of these pieces.
Amis senior has somehow been persuaded to take part as a judge. He watches the girls do the catwalk bit. Most of them mince around with their ridiculous model walks, but one impresses him. She has a brisk, no-nonsense stride, rather as though she is going shopping or is about to catch a bus. He gives her a 10.
In the talent section, the girls say what their interests are. Kingsley writes them all down conscientiously: swimming, dancing, swimming and dancing, dancing, dancing, swimming, swimming and dancing. I may be misquoting slightly.
At the end, the judges all sum up their marks. The girl Kingsley liked most has come last, and the one he liked next most has come second to last.
November 10, 2025
What Became of Jane Austen? And Other questions by Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis he has become my absolute favorite, it used to be Marcel Proust, Somerset Maugham and a few others in close proximity, but now that I have finished maybe the thirtieth of the magnum opera, it looks as if I have an undisputed Number One, although his first masterpiece on The Greatest Books of All Time sits at 387, while other chefs d’oeuvre are so far I may have to stop consulting this GOAT – however, you find more than five thousand reviews on books from this and other sites, together with notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
10 out of 10
I have mentioned above that I admire Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and What Became of Jane Austen and Other Questions confirms his status as the magician of the Glasperlenspiel aka Glass Bead Game
Kingsley Amis is scathing on various subjects and individuals, about Jane Austen ‘I did teach Mansfield Park at Swansea, and very scathing about it I was. I had concluded that Jane Austen was a 2nd-rate pisser while still at school…’ then Dickens: ‘My own experience in reading Dickens, and I doubt whether it us an uncommon one, is to be bounced between violent admiration and violent distaste almost every couple of paragraphs…’
Needless to say, this will affect my perception of Austen – if I ever read her again, there is the high chance that there will be a few more new adaptations of her oeuvre (I would have said magnum opera, but not anymore) I have started the new Frankenstein last night, by the way – and the others mentioned in this collection of essays
There are authors that are praised, with gusto: ‘In Carr-cum-Dickson it does, perhaps two dozen times in all, and this author is a first-rate artist’ also – ‘That world is vividly atmospheric, thanks to Chesterton's wonderful gift for depicting the effects of light on landscape, so that the stories glow as well as tease and mystify. They are works of art’
As for Lolita https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... we have Magister Ludi writing: ‘one of the troubles with Lolita is that, so far from being too pornographic, it is not pornographic enough. As well as 'moral' and 'beautiful', the book is also held to be ‘funny', often 'devastatingly' so, and 'satirical'. As for the 'funny' part, all that registered with me were a few passages where irritation caused Humbert to drop the old style-scrambler for a moment’ and I used to like this, even though other Nabokov works eluded me
“I have never understood the fame of the two Agatha Christie characters, both of whom seem straight out of stock- Poirot the excitable but shrewd little foreigner, Marple the innocent, helpless-looking old lady with the keen blue eyes.” This will be helpful, I have avoided crime stories, now Agatha Christie will be out too
It is so rewarding to see that my objections are shared by Kingsley Amis when he refers to Portnoy’s Complaint https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... evidently, I could not see this with the eyes of the Master of The Game, but the displeasure with the second part of the novel was there
The essays end with a superb analysis of Jesus, and religion, and I was surprised to find that Kingsley Amis respects Jesus, I knew he answered to the question what do you think about God with ‘it is more that I hate him’, so I expected the same attitude towards the ‘Son of God’, here indeed the luminary has things to say and I include passages from his magnum opera
“The habitual, undetailed, unanalysing view of Jesus taken by most people, whatever their attitude towards Christianity or the Church, is unlikely to fall below an admiring respect. Seen as the human manifestation of a mysterious or (it may be) impossibly remote Godhead, he appears by contrast accessible to personal sympathy, even affection. One so often portrayed as a baby- virtually the only aspect in which he cannot fail to reach the popular mind, once a year at least- will have a claim on our tenderness, whether or not we concern ourselves with the manner of his conception.
'The Son of Man is come eating and drinking'
(Luke vii 34- a passage embodying one of the most delightful jokes in the whole of ancient literature). It was a last supper, not a collective session of fasting and prayer, from which Jesus went to his final ordeal. And there is something which seems to sum up a great deal in that request of the risen Christ (Luke xxiv 41): 'Have ye here any meat?' At any rate, he moves me here more than anywhere else, and if I envied Christians anything I would envy them a God who could feel hungry.
Thus, we may agree that to love our enemies is both important and difficult, but few of us have many enemies or many chances to love the ones we have. Loving our friends, behaving with love towards those we love, is just as important, and sometimes just as difficult. Jesus took it for granted that 'the good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit'. We recognize every day that unfortunately the situation is more complicated than that.
I refer to such items as war, disease, starvation and madness, also to those subtler engines from Jehovah's armory of maleficence, the pains incidentally accruing from sexual love, marriage and the begetting of children. As a result, there is intermittently visible a rather absurd disparity between what Jesus says to us, tells us is necessary, gets us ready for, and the striking panorama of horror with which we are actually confronted. It is not surprising that so few of us should have taken him to our hearts in the way he wanted: ' . . . because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.'
To solve a riddle or a puzzle is an intellectual exercise that presupposes being able to recognize the solution when found. Just wondering for an indefinite period what somebody might have meant is an activity without relish of salvation in it : all of which, now I come to think of it, raises the question why, if God wanted human beings to have religion, he did not simply give it to them, instead of arranging the world in one way and then sending somebody along to explain that really the whole set-up was quite different. This oddly sidelong or possibly off-hand approach I find to be employed by all gods whatever.
The man's name is Ames," said the late Evelyn Waugh so pontifically that the discussion of Mr. Amis's work was broken off at that point. Probably Waugh was merely putting down an Angry Young Man. But, by an irony, today one notices their resemblances. Grumpy Old Men, the pair of them. (Mr. Amis somehow sounds older than his years.) Amis belongs to no church, and he avoids the self-pitying tone that marred the end of Waugh's career. But they share great concern for the imperiled decencies that should be on-going, in morals, politics, language. This latest book is made of disparate pieces with addenda and essays old and new; book reviews, discussions of cinema, especially horror films, of fictional detectives (so much better than real-life examples), reminiscences of angrier times, recovered with cheer and affection. It is light in tone but not intent. The right bright word is always in its right, striking place”
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
10 out of 10
I have mentioned above that I admire Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and What Became of Jane Austen and Other Questions confirms his status as the magician of the Glasperlenspiel aka Glass Bead Game
Kingsley Amis is scathing on various subjects and individuals, about Jane Austen ‘I did teach Mansfield Park at Swansea, and very scathing about it I was. I had concluded that Jane Austen was a 2nd-rate pisser while still at school…’ then Dickens: ‘My own experience in reading Dickens, and I doubt whether it us an uncommon one, is to be bounced between violent admiration and violent distaste almost every couple of paragraphs…’
Needless to say, this will affect my perception of Austen – if I ever read her again, there is the high chance that there will be a few more new adaptations of her oeuvre (I would have said magnum opera, but not anymore) I have started the new Frankenstein last night, by the way – and the others mentioned in this collection of essays
There are authors that are praised, with gusto: ‘In Carr-cum-Dickson it does, perhaps two dozen times in all, and this author is a first-rate artist’ also – ‘That world is vividly atmospheric, thanks to Chesterton's wonderful gift for depicting the effects of light on landscape, so that the stories glow as well as tease and mystify. They are works of art’
As for Lolita https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... we have Magister Ludi writing: ‘one of the troubles with Lolita is that, so far from being too pornographic, it is not pornographic enough. As well as 'moral' and 'beautiful', the book is also held to be ‘funny', often 'devastatingly' so, and 'satirical'. As for the 'funny' part, all that registered with me were a few passages where irritation caused Humbert to drop the old style-scrambler for a moment’ and I used to like this, even though other Nabokov works eluded me
“I have never understood the fame of the two Agatha Christie characters, both of whom seem straight out of stock- Poirot the excitable but shrewd little foreigner, Marple the innocent, helpless-looking old lady with the keen blue eyes.” This will be helpful, I have avoided crime stories, now Agatha Christie will be out too
It is so rewarding to see that my objections are shared by Kingsley Amis when he refers to Portnoy’s Complaint https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... evidently, I could not see this with the eyes of the Master of The Game, but the displeasure with the second part of the novel was there
The essays end with a superb analysis of Jesus, and religion, and I was surprised to find that Kingsley Amis respects Jesus, I knew he answered to the question what do you think about God with ‘it is more that I hate him’, so I expected the same attitude towards the ‘Son of God’, here indeed the luminary has things to say and I include passages from his magnum opera
“The habitual, undetailed, unanalysing view of Jesus taken by most people, whatever their attitude towards Christianity or the Church, is unlikely to fall below an admiring respect. Seen as the human manifestation of a mysterious or (it may be) impossibly remote Godhead, he appears by contrast accessible to personal sympathy, even affection. One so often portrayed as a baby- virtually the only aspect in which he cannot fail to reach the popular mind, once a year at least- will have a claim on our tenderness, whether or not we concern ourselves with the manner of his conception.
'The Son of Man is come eating and drinking'
(Luke vii 34- a passage embodying one of the most delightful jokes in the whole of ancient literature). It was a last supper, not a collective session of fasting and prayer, from which Jesus went to his final ordeal. And there is something which seems to sum up a great deal in that request of the risen Christ (Luke xxiv 41): 'Have ye here any meat?' At any rate, he moves me here more than anywhere else, and if I envied Christians anything I would envy them a God who could feel hungry.
Thus, we may agree that to love our enemies is both important and difficult, but few of us have many enemies or many chances to love the ones we have. Loving our friends, behaving with love towards those we love, is just as important, and sometimes just as difficult. Jesus took it for granted that 'the good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit'. We recognize every day that unfortunately the situation is more complicated than that.
I refer to such items as war, disease, starvation and madness, also to those subtler engines from Jehovah's armory of maleficence, the pains incidentally accruing from sexual love, marriage and the begetting of children. As a result, there is intermittently visible a rather absurd disparity between what Jesus says to us, tells us is necessary, gets us ready for, and the striking panorama of horror with which we are actually confronted. It is not surprising that so few of us should have taken him to our hearts in the way he wanted: ' . . . because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.'
To solve a riddle or a puzzle is an intellectual exercise that presupposes being able to recognize the solution when found. Just wondering for an indefinite period what somebody might have meant is an activity without relish of salvation in it : all of which, now I come to think of it, raises the question why, if God wanted human beings to have religion, he did not simply give it to them, instead of arranging the world in one way and then sending somebody along to explain that really the whole set-up was quite different. This oddly sidelong or possibly off-hand approach I find to be employed by all gods whatever.
The man's name is Ames," said the late Evelyn Waugh so pontifically that the discussion of Mr. Amis's work was broken off at that point. Probably Waugh was merely putting down an Angry Young Man. But, by an irony, today one notices their resemblances. Grumpy Old Men, the pair of them. (Mr. Amis somehow sounds older than his years.) Amis belongs to no church, and he avoids the self-pitying tone that marred the end of Waugh's career. But they share great concern for the imperiled decencies that should be on-going, in morals, politics, language. This latest book is made of disparate pieces with addenda and essays old and new; book reviews, discussions of cinema, especially horror films, of fictional detectives (so much better than real-life examples), reminiscences of angrier times, recovered with cheer and affection. It is light in tone but not intent. The right bright word is always in its right, striking place”
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
November 2, 2009
If anyone on staff is interested, I'd be happy to submit a scan of the dust jacket of my copy. It's beautiful enough to be bothered about. It features six snapshots of a few of the figures Amis is concerned with in his essays, Jane Austen, Christopher Lee (the actor), Charles Dickens, DH Lawrence, Peter Cushing (the actor), and Ian Fleming.
If you compare this collection of lit crit and pop rumination to similar recent efforts by Updike, Hitchens, or even Amis' son Martin, you'll find it far more readable, if you're anything like me. Kingsley's a far kinder atheist than the Hitch, and in the final essay "On Christ's Nature" he gives Jesus a couple of soft compliments. Needless to say, he demonstrates a profound misunderstanding not only of Christ's nature, but of his own nature. It is absolutely wonderful to read this one where it falls, just after Amis' famous statement about his late politics, "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right". It is the single most lucid (if I can even apply that word in this context) argument I've yet found from someone claiming to embrace conservatism as a philosophy who is also so vehemently anti-Jehovah, and Amis subscribed to both terms. Amis' particular brand of saying AMEN to tradition and HELL NO to Creator God is far more acceptable than the version we find being sputtered out by the likes of Ayn Rand. However, his thinking is still horribly maimed by several large holes. These are particularly egregious (and illuminating of his character) in the two essays in question.
I found the following quotation from the essay on Amis' political views to be exquisitely timely. Though published in 1967, do these words remind you of anything occurring in November 2009?
"You cannot decide to have brotherhood; if you start trying to enforce it, you will before long find yourself enforcing something very different, and much worse than mere absence of brotherhood. All you can reasonably work for is keeping things going, plus as much improvement as they will stand: an injustice righted here, an opportunity extended there. This is not a very romantic-sounding program. In fact it is not a program at all. I like that." ~Kingsley Amis, italics in original
If you compare this collection of lit crit and pop rumination to similar recent efforts by Updike, Hitchens, or even Amis' son Martin, you'll find it far more readable, if you're anything like me. Kingsley's a far kinder atheist than the Hitch, and in the final essay "On Christ's Nature" he gives Jesus a couple of soft compliments. Needless to say, he demonstrates a profound misunderstanding not only of Christ's nature, but of his own nature. It is absolutely wonderful to read this one where it falls, just after Amis' famous statement about his late politics, "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right". It is the single most lucid (if I can even apply that word in this context) argument I've yet found from someone claiming to embrace conservatism as a philosophy who is also so vehemently anti-Jehovah, and Amis subscribed to both terms. Amis' particular brand of saying AMEN to tradition and HELL NO to Creator God is far more acceptable than the version we find being sputtered out by the likes of Ayn Rand. However, his thinking is still horribly maimed by several large holes. These are particularly egregious (and illuminating of his character) in the two essays in question.
I found the following quotation from the essay on Amis' political views to be exquisitely timely. Though published in 1967, do these words remind you of anything occurring in November 2009?
"You cannot decide to have brotherhood; if you start trying to enforce it, you will before long find yourself enforcing something very different, and much worse than mere absence of brotherhood. All you can reasonably work for is keeping things going, plus as much improvement as they will stand: an injustice righted here, an opportunity extended there. This is not a very romantic-sounding program. In fact it is not a program at all. I like that." ~Kingsley Amis, italics in original
May 1, 2024
The essay "Why Lucky Jim Turned Right" is well worth reading. Amis examines his disenchantment with the left, explaining his move from cheerfully supporting the Communist movement in the 1940s and 1950s to voting Conservative for the first time in the late 1960s.
This passage on leftist opposition to "the system" remains relevant today:
"The system exists, so to hell with the system. Damn you, England! Damn you for not listening to me! But, of course, plenty of people are listening, the rank-and-file Lefties with no rhetorical skills, no individual viewpoint, only a readiness to demonstrate and march against the system, to grasp at that wonderful and unique and paradoxical satisfaction which the Left offers: of swimming with and against the stream at the same time, of being both rebel and conformist, of joining in the massed choir of half a million voices crying in the wilderness. On either or any level, emotion is calling the tune. Some pretty powerful set of emotions, clearly, is at work when, after being revealed as unworthy of even the most cynical kind of support, Nasser and the Arab/Russian cause go on being supported, as vociferously as ever and without even a decent delay, in our correspondence columns."
The above offers insight into the current situation on college campuses. How can students (and faculty, for that matter) cheer on Hamas? Because Hamas hates the system. It doesn't seem to matter that Hamas's preferred "solution" would involve throwing many of the student demonstrators from rooftops.
On a lighter note, I much appreciated Amis's adoration and defense of Hammer Horror films in another essay and his curmudgeonly dismissal of certain mystery writers in another.
This passage on leftist opposition to "the system" remains relevant today:
"The system exists, so to hell with the system. Damn you, England! Damn you for not listening to me! But, of course, plenty of people are listening, the rank-and-file Lefties with no rhetorical skills, no individual viewpoint, only a readiness to demonstrate and march against the system, to grasp at that wonderful and unique and paradoxical satisfaction which the Left offers: of swimming with and against the stream at the same time, of being both rebel and conformist, of joining in the massed choir of half a million voices crying in the wilderness. On either or any level, emotion is calling the tune. Some pretty powerful set of emotions, clearly, is at work when, after being revealed as unworthy of even the most cynical kind of support, Nasser and the Arab/Russian cause go on being supported, as vociferously as ever and without even a decent delay, in our correspondence columns."
The above offers insight into the current situation on college campuses. How can students (and faculty, for that matter) cheer on Hamas? Because Hamas hates the system. It doesn't seem to matter that Hamas's preferred "solution" would involve throwing many of the student demonstrators from rooftops.
On a lighter note, I much appreciated Amis's adoration and defense of Hammer Horror films in another essay and his curmudgeonly dismissal of certain mystery writers in another.
January 6, 2015
"What Became of Jane Austen" was actually the first book placed on my to-read shelf. I have been actively searching for this for almost two years. You see, when you boycott Amazon and shop exclusively at local used bookstores, it can be difficult to find a British essay collection that went out of print before my parents were born.
I wanted this book for three reasons. I was disappointed on all counts.
1. Amis's critique of Jane Austen-
Although he did allude to the famous bit about Austen spending too long on the unimportant and glossing over the important, the titular essay was all of four pages long. Amis refused to comment on Austen's abilities as a writer and instead discussed why some people found "Mansfield Park" immoral.
2. Amis's controversial opinions on translated literature-
I actually agree with Amis on this. And though I think it's hard to be well-read without tackling the great Russian masters, I have attempted to read Voltaire in the original. However, Amis's famous attack on translation appears here as a one-line aside during an interview with a visiting poet.
3. Amis's scorching attacks on D.H. Lawrence-
He mentions at least four times in the collection that he positively hates the man. However, he apparently isn't brave enough to explain himself. After setting the scene for an attack on a canonized author, Amis says he "doesn't want to have (his) windows smashed in by Lawrence vigilantes" and instead criticizes an obscure author who literally no one alive today has read.
There were a few decent pieces in the collection, (the evolution of the detective story, for example) but they could not outweigh my disappointment with the first few essays, or my disgust at the close-minded travesty that is "Lone Voices."
I wanted this book for three reasons. I was disappointed on all counts.
1. Amis's critique of Jane Austen-
Although he did allude to the famous bit about Austen spending too long on the unimportant and glossing over the important, the titular essay was all of four pages long. Amis refused to comment on Austen's abilities as a writer and instead discussed why some people found "Mansfield Park" immoral.
2. Amis's controversial opinions on translated literature-
I actually agree with Amis on this. And though I think it's hard to be well-read without tackling the great Russian masters, I have attempted to read Voltaire in the original. However, Amis's famous attack on translation appears here as a one-line aside during an interview with a visiting poet.
3. Amis's scorching attacks on D.H. Lawrence-
He mentions at least four times in the collection that he positively hates the man. However, he apparently isn't brave enough to explain himself. After setting the scene for an attack on a canonized author, Amis says he "doesn't want to have (his) windows smashed in by Lawrence vigilantes" and instead criticizes an obscure author who literally no one alive today has read.
There were a few decent pieces in the collection, (the evolution of the detective story, for example) but they could not outweigh my disappointment with the first few essays, or my disgust at the close-minded travesty that is "Lone Voices."
May 11, 2016
This is Amis on everything from Jane Austen to religion. Yes it is often a bit of rant but what else would you expect in the potentially explosive combination of an opinionated Amis in the format of a newspaper column which itself has long pushed writers into strong opinions expressed at speed?
However these are erudite and entertaining rants, even if we can’t always agree with what he has to say. His opening shot at Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park is spot on in praising Austen as a writer while accurately analysing what is most annoying about this particular story.
One of his targets appears at least twice in this collection, which is religion, and in particular Christianity. Indeed both the opening essay on Austen and the last column of the book tackle that target and he returns to that attack in several other of his writings beyond this collection. As the sort of Christian he would particularly take issue with all I can say is that it is at least flattering for the faith that he so often takes such pains to have a go at it.
We expect Amis to be curmudgeonery and brutally critical in such a collection of columns but there are some moments of compassion and introspection here, particularly in the essay where he regrets abandoning Dylan Thomas at an event.
However these are erudite and entertaining rants, even if we can’t always agree with what he has to say. His opening shot at Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park is spot on in praising Austen as a writer while accurately analysing what is most annoying about this particular story.
One of his targets appears at least twice in this collection, which is religion, and in particular Christianity. Indeed both the opening essay on Austen and the last column of the book tackle that target and he returns to that attack in several other of his writings beyond this collection. As the sort of Christian he would particularly take issue with all I can say is that it is at least flattering for the faith that he so often takes such pains to have a go at it.
We expect Amis to be curmudgeonery and brutally critical in such a collection of columns but there are some moments of compassion and introspection here, particularly in the essay where he regrets abandoning Dylan Thomas at an event.
May 1, 2011
The first few essays were something of a let-down, and considering I was not at all pleased with Amis' 'Anti-Death League', I guess I was ready to condemn the rest of them. Then Amis started talking horror movies and I have to admit I started to enjoy what I was reading. I stand corrected as far as this book goes. Will I read more of his works? We shall see.
April 5, 2012
Damn good set of essays.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews