Customer Reviews

Nightwood: The Original Version and Related Drafts

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It was thought for many years that there was another manuscript, or that there were more pieces to this book than the slim version which became a prose masterpiece included in the canon of American Lit 1900 to 1940. Because of the editing and work by Eliot etal, and because of Barne's reclusiveness, wse didn't know much about this manuscript. Thus Cheryl Plumb's work helps us understand more about the process of this book, it's starts and stops, it's magic and mystery. A must for Djuna Barnes fans

In this edition, the novel itself takes up only 143 pages. The rest is apparatus, excerpts of discarded text, and a lot of other editorial mumbo-jumbo. However, there is one big thing missing from this edition, and that is T. S. Eliot's preface. I have read only the first chapter, but I don't think I'm going to appreciate the remaining chapters either.

I managed to plow my way through this truly awful book, but I couldn't make myself read more than a chapter a day. It was just pointless. There was no story, none of the characters were even remotely interesting, nor did they have anything memorable to say.

There are certain books I have just not been able to appreciate: IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT, A TRAVELER (Calvino), THE MAN WITHOUT QUALITIES (Musil), all of Rabelais. It's probably a missing gene, one I'm glad I haven't got.