Reviews for Sweet uses of adversity

The average rating for Sweet uses of adversity based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-01-22 00:00:00 Derick Gavidia It's easy to say, and quite correct, as pointed out in a review of Suspended Judgements by the Yale Review, that this book is full of errors of fact, judgment and omission, and that this book is full of incredibly poor and even irresponsible criticism, which can even change from one page to the next. The introduction and conclusion of this book I found unreadable, possibly the worst thing I've ever read by this author. All of this is quite obvious. And yet, Powys writes not as an academic, but as an artist, and with incredible insight, and frequent beauty, that this was a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and enlightening read. The essays on Montaigne, Maupassant, Emily Bronte and Henry James are the best I've ever read about these authors and this book made me want to go out and read everything that Remy de Gourmont ever wrote. And so frequently in his comments, very frequently, he hits the nail on the head, that it is worth the general meandering senseless disaster so much of this book consists of. Powys never holds back, in sweeping generalization, in deeply offensive social commentary, in overbearing and omnipresent personality, so that this book grips you in a way that few books do and more of this type should. The book is actually more "sane" than Visions and Revisions, which is unfortunate, as it leaves Powys more vulnerable, but as the book goes on he becomes more lucid and more of his typical self. The book reads like, and way perhaps based upon, popular lectures that Powys gave to support himself most of his career. There is not enough of this, certainly not in the world today, where the great writers and great classics are subject to such fine scrutiny that all of the life is taken out of them. Reading this book made me excited about reading! Who cares about "details"? If this book was assigned to high school students yes they would be incredibly misinformed on so many points, but they would reach for a volume of Maupassant with enthusiasm and be justly rewarded. From his essay on Verlaine: "The things that pertain the deepest to humanity are not it's fierce fleshy passions, its feverish ambitions, its proud reasonings, its tumultuous hopes. They are the things that belong to the hours when these obsessive forces fade and ebb and sink away. They are the things that rise up out of the twilight-margins of sleep and death; the things that come to us on softly stepping feet, like child-mothers with their first-born in their arms; the things that have the white mists of dawn about them and the cool breath of evening around them; the things that hint at something beyond passion and beyond reason; the things that sound to us like the sound of bells heard through clear deep water; for the secret of human life is not in its actions or its voices our its clamorous desires, but in the interval between all these - when all these leave it for a moment at rest - and in the depths of the soul itself the music becomes audible, the music which is the silence of eternity." Say what you will about the "appropriateness" of this paragraph, is this not, in fact, the "feeling" that Verlaine evokes? Doesn't it make you want to "reach for the Verlaine", like a bottle of fine wine? Anyway, this book is still "early" JC Powys, and he is more famous for his novels than his books like this one, but this book is well worth reading for anyone who loves books or loves the authors he covers.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-06-08 00:00:00 Kris Sanders I came across John Cowper Powys in Will Durant's 'Adventures in Genius.' Powys has written critical essays on Montaigne,Pascal,Voltaire,Rousseau, Balzac, Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, Anatole France, Paul Verlaine, Remy De Gourmont, William Blake, Byron, Emily Bronte, Joseph Conrad, Henry James to Oscar Wild, criticizing and reviewing their works. I read his essays with great pleasure,though I could not follow, the poems and quotes from the works of Paul Verlaine and Anatole France, which were in French. However it seems that those literary figures has been only an excuse for Powys to pour in all his philosophy. Each essay reveals, the artist, his works, and the politics and philosophy of the author himself. He believes the individual should cultivate his own mind and soul by self approach to the literary classic books, in order to absorb them and avoid the pretentious intellectualism. Sometimes he repeats himself, sometimes goes too far and speaks more about his philosophy rather than the literary figures he is supposed to criticize and judge. But after all the title of his book is 'Suspended Judgments' so we accept them as they are..What is more his style of writing is so beautiful, rich and superb; excellent essays written with sincerity and in simple and straightforward language. He argues that:“Art and Literature are-the last refuge and sanctuary,in a world ruled by machinery and sentiment.......If books were taken from us— the high, calm, beautiful, ironical books of classic tradition—how in this age, could the more sensitive among us endure to live at all?..…..It is only when we suspend our judgments and leave arguing and criticizing, that the quiet gods of the moonlit shores of the world murmur their secrets in our ears.....when one has thus freed oneself from the tyranny of literary catchwords and the dead weight of cultivated public opinion...It is wonderful what thrilling pleasures there are in store for us in literature..and... one comes back to the world of books with an added zest."