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<DIV>I remember at primary school being asked to write an essay with the subject
If you weren’t who you are, who would you like to be? A remarkably stupid
concept, I thought at the time, and still think so. Of course, I had no
idea how to answer it. I hated stuff like Paint whatever scene you’d like
to. Child-centred education – pah! Thank goodness we didn’t have
much of *that*.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Struggling away, my answer was Hawthorne. God knows how I managed to
spin it out. Much of my knowledge of Greek myths is founded on Tanglewood
Tales and A Wonder Book. Bet not many British people can say that.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So, it was an intense disappointment to read The Scarlet Letter in about
1993. Of course, I couldn’t understand the beginning, and once I got going
I found it deeply boring. I finished it, tho’.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Whether I’ll manage my second reading of “Our Mutual Friend”, which I’m
currently engaged on, I don’t know. (I remember nothing of my first
reading.) I feel that this is going to be my last Dickens, unless I reread
Great Expectations &/or Bleak House, which I am enthusiastic about. I
do find Dickens unsympathetic. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And so, I have to agree with Virginia, if she really did think this – I
preferred You Know Me Al – even tho’ I didn’t understand all of it, being
written, as you know, in a foreign language – to The Scarlet Letter.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Stuart</DIV>
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<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=jeannette_smyth@earthlink.net
href="mailto:jeannette_smyth@earthlink.net">jeannette smyth</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:02 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=harish.trivedi@gmail.com
href="mailto:harish.trivedi@gmail.com">Harish Trivedi</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu
href="mailto:vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu">vwoolf listserv</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vwoolf] Leslie Stephen</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">
<P><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=2><FONT face=arial,sans-serif>My literary
tastes are, God knows, not infallible. Then again, I don't make my living as a
literary journalist. But even <EM>I </EM>know that Hawthorne is <EM>The
Man.</EM> Recently re-read <EM>Scarlet Letter</EM> thinking I'd probably not
feel it, the way one can no longer feel <EM>Anna Karenina</EM> (not least on
account of Tolstoy's bone-deep misogynism). I was in tears at the end of it.
Tears for Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale! From this withered and hardened
old heart.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=2><FONT face=arial,sans-serif>Interesting to
think Stephen was blind to Dickens (also more and more prescient, sublime,
Marxist, even) and Woolf to Hawthorne. Thanks to all for these
insights.</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=2><FONT face=arial,sans-serif>Take
care,</FONT></FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=2><FONT face=arial,sans-serif>Jeannette
Smyth<BR></P></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px">-----Original
Message----- <BR>From: Harish Trivedi <HARISH.TRIVEDI @GMAIL.COM><BR>Sent: Sep
12, 2012 10:26 AM <BR>To: jeannette smyth <JEANNETTE_SMYTH
@EARTHLINK.NET><BR>Cc: Eleanor McNees <ELEANOR.MCNEES @DU.EDU>, vwoolf
listserv <VWOOLF @LISTS.SERVICE.OHIO-STATE.EDU><BR>Subject: Re: [Vwoolf]
Leslie Stephen <BR><BR>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Yes, indeed, let's not to be too correct or presentist. To see LS just as
a father is rather like seeing VW just as a daughter. And to see him just as
Mr Ramsay is like seeing VW just as a woman with a tendecy to go 'mad' from
time to time, while disregarding completely what each of them wrote.
Patriarchy here seems well met by some shades of Feminism.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Of LS's DNB essays, one that has not stood the test of time too well is
that on Dickens, who is now 200 years old but was still (luke)warm is his
grave when LS wrote that entry. As I recall, he said something to the
effect that D must be reckoned great if popularity with the semi-literates
<BR>was to be regarded as proof of greatness. Very sniffy -- but hardly more
so than VW on American Literature, where she prized Ring Lardner (!) above
Hawthorne. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>All said and done, she was her father's daughter.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Harish Trivedi </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On 12 September 2012 20:26, jeannette smyth <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:jeannette_smyth@earthlink.net"
target=_blank>jeannette_smyth@earthlink.net</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>
<P><FONT color=#000000><FONT face=arial,sans-serif>Noel Annan's bio is also
enlightening; she seems to have inherited a great deal of his physical
toughness, Stephen family mental high/low, and courage. She also inherited
his place at the pinnacle of literary journalism and atheism. As an American
I wondered for years how she found herself at the nexus of such a powerful
group of friends, until I realized they'd all been friends for five
generations, since the Clapham sect. This doesn't happen in
America.</FONT></FONT></P>
<P><A
href="http://www.amazon.com/Leslie-Stephen-Noel-Gilroy-Annan/dp/0226021068/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347461564&sr=1-4"
target=_blank>http://www.amazon.com/Leslie-Stephen-Noel-Gilroy-Annan/dp/0226021068/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347461564&sr=1-4</A></P>
<P> </P>
<P>Don't some of his DNB essays still stand?</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Take care,</P>
<P>Jeannette Smyth</P>
<DIV>
<DIV class=h5>
<P> </P>
<P><FONT color=#000000><FONT
face=arial,sans-serif><BR> </FONT></FONT></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 0px">-----Original
Message----- <BR>From: Eleanor McNees <U></U><BR>Sent: Sep 10, 2012 1:19
PM <BR>To: "<A href="mailto:vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu"
target=_blank>vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu</A>" <U></U><BR>Subject:
[Vwoolf] Leslie Stephen
<BR><BR><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal>Dear Woolf Colleagues,<U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><U></U><U></U> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>If one takes the time to read Leslie Stephen’s essays
over the course of his life as well as his many entries in the Dictionary
of National Biography which he initiated and edited for over a decade, one
finds a rather different persona from the one so often criticized as a
tyrannical and maudlin father. In addition his letters in the two-volume
Bicknell edition present a far more human version. Woolf herself
acknowledged especially in her retrospective piece for <I>The Times</I>
how significant his literary influence on her was. <U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><U></U><U></U> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Regards,<U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Eleanor<U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><U></U><U></U> </P>
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style="COLOR: rgb(192,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><U></U><U></U></SPAN></B> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(99,36,35)">Eleanor
McNees<U></U><U></U></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Associate Dean<U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Professor of English<U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences<U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><U></U><U></U> </P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><U></U><U></U> </P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><B>FAX:</B> 303.871.4436<U></U><U></U></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><U></U><U></U> </P>
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<P
class=MsoNormal><U></U><U></U> </P></DIV><U></U><U></U></BLOCKQUOTE><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U><U></U></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Vwoolf
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