Reviews for Thackeray the Humourist and the Man of Letters

The average rating for Thackeray the Humourist and the Man of Letters based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-12-02 00:00:00 Nuwan Wellalage These letters flesh out -- and add more nuance -- to what we know about Isherwood's relationship to his mother through his own memoirs and diaries. I found this passage -- about the changing nature of the parent-child relationship when one reaches adulthood -- particularly poignant --- "Life seems to have gone by in a moment. How does yours seem to you? I wish we were together and could talk -- because now I don't feel that you are any particular age, or that I am any particular age. Or even, especially, that you're my Mother. There's so much I want to ask -- so much I should have asked, instead of lecturing you from the sitting -room fireplace --- simply as a fellow traveller. I have often made you very unhappy; but, believe me, I have been punished for it -- so severely punished that I don't need to apologize. My punishment has been that I have always, in one way or another, made the people I loved behave to me as I behaved to you. Goodness, how long it takes to learn."

Review # 2 was written on 2007-07-14 00:00:00 Derrick Hsu I would have given this book 5 stars, but it was too short - only covering the years 1933-39. It offered some interesting insights into Isherwood's relationship with his mother (and his friends/travelling partners), but the letters are best used as supporting documents in a larger biography. The story they tell is incomplete at best and editor Lisa Colletta's notes leave a bit to be desired.