Customer Reviews

Meredith

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Meredith [a biography of George Meredith, British novelist & poet, 1828-1909], Siegfried Sassoon; Constable & Company, Ltd. (1948)

Quite far from my usual orbits of interest, but Sassoon reappeared with the same stellar writing that I had so admired in his "Memoirs of A Fox Hunting Man." An allegiance was enticed, again.

This hardcover was a first edition (from Saratoga's Lyrical Ballad; & who knows how long it had lain on the shelves in a dusty basement labyrinth before rescue?).

During the first reading, the first highlighting sank into the spongy English paper (milled in 1948, or earlier). Later, it was discovered to have vanished, almost entirely; the ancient paper "drank" the ink (Warning: Do not do this to the pre-1948 Egyptian hieroglyphics in the British Museum. You will get identically poor results).

"Meredith" had been so appreciated that all of the once-highlighted words were immediately given a second & hopefully permanent coat.

We don't do this for books that disappoint us.

Q: How could have the English publishers acquired an exemption from their government's post-World War II paper rationing - to publish a biography of a by-then almost forgotten novelist & poet (who, only 39 years earlier, had died a national celebrity)?

What optimism! Sheer fiscal insanity! God bless them.