Sunday, October the 31th, 2010
back to: title, date or indexes
Another snippet from Richard O'Connor's 1967 biography of Ambrose Bierce:
“The book-reviewing end of his chores, predictably, loosed [Bierce's] most savage energies… He once composed what may be the shortest, nastiest book review on the record by listing its title, author and publisher and adding the one-line comment, ‘The covers of this book are too far apart’.
“Occasionally, like an eagle swooping down on the carrion-littered plains of literature, he would quote one paragraph of a current novel as an example of hopelessly bad writing. Such as : ‘She remained inactive in his embrace for a considerable period, then modestly disengaging herself looked him full in the countenance and signified a desire for self-communion. By love's instinct he divined her purpose—she wanted to consider his proposal apart from the influence of the glamour of his personal presence. With the innate tact of a truly genteel nature he bade her good evening in French, and with measured tread paced away into the gathering gloom’.”
Alas, we are not told the titles of the two books under review.
Hooting Yard on the Air, November the 4th, 2010 : “Five Last Songs” (starts around 00:15)