[Vwoolf] 'a look of John Burrows'

[Emily Kopley]

Hi Anne, Harish, and All,

  Woolf elaborated on that line from "The Novels of George Meredith" in the
manuscript draft of "A Letter to a Young Poet." She writes, in my
transcription:

...the two most perfect novels in the English language are undoubtedly
that Emma,
+ The Small House at Allington for one is wed[?] to the definite even if,
as so often happens, one has to qualify the opinions in six months time.
this is an opinion that needs qualification. And why is this? Because each
does fully + completely what the novel was meant to do. By this I mean that
the the characters in both of those books are wholly in being. The author
has nothing to add to their sayings Nothing remains outside them

They take the whole burden of the book upon themselves. No Its lights, its
shadows, its wit, humour, tragedy, common sense, come[?], soundly +
completely, without distortion, dilution, effort or exaggeration from the
life of the men + women; who live there who are the inhabitants of the
book, + nothing is left over for Jane Austen or Anthony Trollope to explain
in her or his own person. The novel, I repeat, was adapted for this end;
this that I repeat was what the novel was meant to do,  for all its
characteristics were adapted to create characters who are capable of
anthis rounded independent existence.

At any rate, both these books fulfil my the stand the test which, mentally,
one applies to works of art. [end of quote]


We see that here VW esteems *Emma *instead of *Pride+Prejudice*, and
justifies her claim about "the most perfect novels in English": *Emma*
+ *Allington
*allow the characters to dominate because they lack intrusions from the
author figure. She goes on to say that George Eliot served as the serpent
in this edenic garden of the novel, by introducing the narrator's voice and
thought. "Novels became less + less in the hands of the characters
themselves," she writes. So, we might say that VW admired Trollope's
birthing of characters with a "rounded independent existence" even as she
recognized the need for novelists after him to advance upon the
character-driven realism that he had mastered. (Yet the question remains of
how VW distinguished Trollope's perfection from Austen's, since clearly she
admired Austen more.)


Best,

Emily


On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 2:32 PM, Harish Trivedi <harish.trivedi at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> Well, yes, there is a little problem there! But VW's view of Trollope was
> a bit more complicated than that perhaps.
>
> Leslie Stephen, who had known Trollope, thought he looked like 'the ideal
> beef-eater' who could bring the roof down with his boisterous laughter. VW
> read *Barchester Towers* early, in 1897. She later wrote: 'We believe in
> Barchester as we believe in the reality of our own weekly bills.'  But that
> wasn't of course a compliment; just for that reason, his 'two and thirty
> chapters' never took off. Must novels be like this, she seemed to have
> asked of just such novels.
>
> But then, there's also a surprisingly positive assessment, even if as an
> obiter dictum. She did say that *The Small House at Allington* and *Pride
> and Prejudice* were 'those two perfect novels.' ('The Novels of George
> Meredith,' 1928)  One wishes she had explained fully why she mentioned the
> two in the same breath. The only hint we seem to have is that 'perfect'
> though those two novels may have been in their own way, Meredith was to be
> lauded for breaking away from that mould of perfection. 'English fiction
> had to escape from the dominon of that perfection...if fiction had remained
> what it was to Jane Austen and Trollope, fiction would by this time be
> dead.'
>
> But then, again: 'How admirable it all is -- but not symbolized --
> therefore peters out -- dribbles away.'  (Reading notes on The Small
> House...)
>
> So, it is a bit more complex than VW simply not liking Trollope.
>
> Best wishes.
> Harish Trivedi
>
>
>
> On 8 January 2013 00:16, ANNE Fernald [Staff/Faculty [A&S]] <
> fernald at fordham.edu> wrote:
>
>> Good afternoon, Woolfians,
>>
>> I'm combing through the final bits and bobs of my edition of Mrs.
>> Dalloway and I think I've found the source for "a look of John Burrows"
>> (thanks to the Oxford database of all its reference books, as multiple
>> other tries ended up blank):
>>
>> It turns out that in Trollope’s *The Vicar of Bullhampton* (1870), John
>> Burrows is a notorious jailbird, also called ‘Jack the Grinder’, who is
>> convicted of the murder of Farmer Trumbull.
>>
>> So, that seems right--a good shorthand way to indicate someone looks like
>> a career criminal while at the same time remaining in the bounds of what
>> one could say in Clarissa's drawing room.
>>
>> That's the treat. Now, my query: does anyone have anything clever,
>> relevant, or interesting to add about Woolf on Trollope? I'd be most
>> grateful for your thoughts. Her words on him are few and I'm not turning up
>> much of enough significance to add to the footnote, except to say---what?
>> She knew his work but didn't particularly admire it? Well, duh....
>>
>> All best to you in the New Year,
>>
>> Anne
>>
>> --
>> Anne E. Fernald<http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/english/faculty/english_faculty/anne_fernald_28537.asp>
>> Director of Writing/Composition at Lincoln Center,
>> Associate Professor of English<http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/english/index.asp>and Women's
>> Studies <http://www.fordham.edu/womens_studies>
>> Fordham University
>> 113 W 60th St.
>> New York NY 10023
>>
>> 212/636-7613
>> fernald at fordham.edu
>>
>>
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> --
> Emily Kopley
> Ph. D. Candidate, English Literature
> Stanford University
>
>  <https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf>
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