PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS

by Connolly. Cyril ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

What a pleasure to read Cyril Connolly! Even this collection of stray cat criticism mostly from the English Sunday Times over the last decade or so. What an effortless style- elegant, impudent, wise; he keeps climbing the proverbial bean stalk ping into the abodes of literary giants, or going about like Diogenes looking for a true new talent in the dumpy world below. ""An ageing Narcissus complete with pool""- that's how Connolly describes himself and his book, which divides four-ways: travel pieces (anything from a dazzling meditation on the Grand Tour to animal life and under-water fishing); discussions of the classics (Shakespeare, Petronius, Stendhal); of the moderns (James, Eliot, Joyce, Fitzgerald); and satires (an outrageous Ian Fleming take-off has James Bond dressing in ""drag"" to get his man- only Connolly could get away with that). And one stunning phrase after another: categorizing literature as ""2000 years of frustration"" (a lifetime reviewer's speaking there), or distilling a Proustian experience, ""when anguish, like a guided missile, hurtles us out of the blue."" Connolly is responsive to the best in civilization, and he's seductive enough to make us responsive too. A hard-nosed sophisticate whose hedonism is matched by his humanity; his prose should be made mandatory in every workshop writing course. In the meantime, enjoy!

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION