Artistic License: Three Centuries of Good Writing and Bad Behavior [Hardcover]

Brooke Allen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1566635950 | ISBN-13: 978-1566635950 | Publication Date: July 27, 2004

Brooke Allen's sparkling new collection of essays considers the dysfunctional and apparently destructive nature of great talent. Ms. Allen shows how the incendiaries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were, in real terms, far more daring and more disturbing to the moral and ideological systems of their time than is the modern mutineer, who stages his rebellion within a social framework that condones—or at least pretends to condone—rebellion. She finds it surprising that so many writers held on to artistic rectitude in the face of all-but-insuperable personal failings. Her brief but pungent profiles help enrich our understanding of the writers' works.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From Henry James’s alleged contribution to Constance Fenimore Woolson’s suicide to Bram Stoker’s "mutually parasitical" friendship with the actor Henry Irving, Allen (Twentieth-Century Attitudes) digs up the dirt on some of the best writers of the English canon. Her collection of 18 smart, gossipy essays—many of which were previously published in the New Criterion, the Hudson Review or the New York Times Book Review—takes a bemused look at the naughty behavior of our most revered writers. "The Western literary tradition," she quips, "seems to have been dominated by a sorry collection of alcoholics, compulsive gamblers, manic-depressives, sexual predators and various combinations of two, three, or even all of the above." Only a pedagogue, she writes, "could have turned this rogues’ gallery of weirdoes into the dim procession of canonical ‘dead white males’ that now sends college students to sleep." Allen does recognize that it is often better to read literature without delving into the dirty process of its making, but she nonetheless gleefully chronicles such juicy bits as Lord Byron’s "grisly" marriage, Sinclair Lewis’s inferiority complex and Hans Christian Anderson’s "incessant craving for praise and attention." And with chapter titles like "Boswell: A Quivering Jelly" it’s difficult to resist the temptation of joining her for the post-mortem. Readers looking for reverent discourse on the genius of Thackeray or meticulous explication de text won’t find it here. But anyone in the mood for a refreshing, lighthearted and, ultimately, enlightened look at the nature of art and the flawed characters of the people who make it will be hard pressed to find a more entertaining volume than this.
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From Booklist

Allen's last literary romp, Twentieth-Century Attitudes (2003), garnered high praise and landed on the New York Times "Notable Books" list and the National Book Critics Circle's roster of finalists. In her equally saucy and shrewd new collection, the author, who matches literary erudition with a lithe yet pithy writing style, extends her gift for usefully combining biography and literary criticism to an acutely perceptive consideration of the puzzlingly common phenomenon of "the dysfunctional and apparently destructive nature of great talent." How is it, she asks, that so many indisputably fine writers lived such chaotic and painful lives? And how often were their inabilities to conform heroic in their protest against the unjust establishment of their time (and how clearly Allen prefers these wild individuals to today's pallid, politically correct, careerist writers), and how often were their failings simply the fallout of being born a "weirdo?" This perennially fascinating subject is rendered all the more delectable by Allen's cast of characters, which includes Hans Christian Andersen, Bram Stoker, Byron, Laurence Sterne, Wilkie Collins, and William Saroyan. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (July 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566635950
• ISBN-13: 978-1566635950
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,388,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A critical evaluation of three centuries of good writing, November 6, 2004

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Artistic License: Three Centuries of Good Writing and Bad Behavior (Hardcover)

Brooke Allen is a rising literary star whose prior look at 20th century writers received rave reviews; but ARTISTIC LICENSE requires no prior familiarity to stand alone as another excellent literary consideration. Allen's theme here is the dysfunctional, destructive nature of great talent: her survey of changing moral and ideological systems and the rebellion in writer's lives provides quite a lively and critical evaluation of three centuries of good writing and scandalous scholars.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair and balanced, November 1, 2004

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Charlus "charlus" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Artistic License: Three Centuries of Good Writing and Bad Behavior (Hardcover)

First let me say the rationale for grouping these diverse literary essays is misleading; despite contrary claims on the book jacket, not all of the authors included led blemished lives. It probably seemed as good editorial justification for compiling these literary biographical essays as any, as they were clearly written for very different purposes over the years.

But getting beyond that minor critique, the collection is uniformly entertaining, informative and well-written. Allen is an opinionated and witty critic, and is not shy about taking on others in the field (e.g. Joyce Carol Oates in one essay). And while this book may act as a pleasant intro to the authors discussed, it rarely scales the heights of either profundity or dazzling insight which someone like James Wood can provide. Anyone superficially familiar with many of these writers will find themselves trodding familiar ground. For the novice, however, they are a very good place to start.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sketches of Provocative Icons., March 21, 2005

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Artistic License: Three Centuries of Good Writing and Bad Behavior (Hardcover)

This literary critic chooses unorthodox writers in a haphazard manner. She has very little good to say about the eighteen authors she explores in this volume, similar to the 2003 20TH CENTURY ATTITUDES she had published by the same Chicago firm.

Henry James, she says, used women, first his cousin whose death inspired him to write about DAISY MILLER, and another fiction writer he used for THE AMBASSADORS who eventually committed suicide.

L. Frank Baum's OZ stories written for children reflect life in America during WW1. One wise assertion" "Everything in life is unusual until you get accustomed to it."

Fitzgerald and Hemingway were both involved with Gerald Murphy, who impressed Europeans with his style and wealth. Sinclair Lewis, winner of the 1926 Pulitzer prize for ARROWSMITH, refused to accept the honor. He showed no "inferiority complex" in ELMER GENTRY.

Others included in this 'exposure of their faults' include Thackeray, Hawthorne, Hans Christian Andersen and others lesser known or remembered. It does sound more like gossip than history. It's preferable to commemorate the 'genius' these writers presented, as we all have "skeletons in the closet." It never sets well to "air dirty linen." This book leaves a bad impression of the tale-bearer instead of the chosen victims.