Reviews for The Crayon Miscellany

The average rating for The Crayon Miscellany based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-07 00:00:00 Urly Grace "He [Carlyle] was a teacher and a prophet in the Jewish sense of the word. The prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah have become a part of the permanent spiritual inheritance of mankind, because events proved that they had interpreted correctly the signs of their own times, and their prophecies were fulfilled. Carlyle, like them, believed that he had a special message to deliver to the present age. Whether he was correct in that belief, and whether his message was a true message, remains to be seen. He has told us that our most cherished ideas of political liberty, with their kindred corollaries, are mere illusions, and that the progress which has seemed to go along with them is a progress towards anarchy and social dissolution. If he was wrong, he has misused his powers. The principles of his teachings are false. He has offered himself as a guide upon a road of which he had no knowledge; and his own desire for himself would be the speediest oblivion both of his person and his works. If, on the other hand, he has been right; if, like his great predecessors, he has read truly the tendencies of this modern age of ours, and his teaching is authenticated by facts, then Carlyle, too, will take his place among the inspired seers, and he will shine on, another fixed star in the intellectual sky. Time only can show how this will be."

Review # 2 was written on 2019-03-17 00:00:00 Declan Butler Entertaining and useful biography of the semi-inscrutable author of the 12-volume novel collectively known as "A Dance to the Music of Time." In the preface, the author describes the book's goal as ". . . try[ing to] relate the man to his work." And since the "Dance" series is Powell's "creative autobiography," the biographer is working to disentangle fact from fiction. Barber's style is witty and personal; he occasionally breaks through the "fourth wall," to steal a cinematic term, and speaks to the reader as if he were whispering an incisive observation. Sorry, an example of that doesn't come to hand immediately, but there it is anyway. I have an unread biography of Proust and often have wondered whether or not I should attempt it before I have read all of "A la recherché du temps perdu." After reading this biography of Powell, whose "Dance" series often is called 'the English version of Proust," I think the answer is "read the fiction before the fact." One reading this biography without having read the "Dance" novels would be missing a lot of the fun and perhaps wasting time. Powell really wouldn't be much of a literary figure without the "Dance" series -- and the fictional narrator "Nick Jenkins" is key to understanding Powell -- so read "Dance" before reading this book.