[Vwoolf] Arnold Bennett again

Barbara Lounsberry lounsberry at gmail.com
Thu Nov 29 08:51:51 EST 2018


Another influence, perhaps.  In April 1920, Woolf received a copy of W.N.P.
Barbellion's famous *Journal of a Disappointed Man.  *There she found this
1917 entry: "I am simply marking time on the edge of a precipice awaiting
the order, 'Forward.'"  She employs the figure herself in her May 5, 1920
diary entry: "this marks some step over a precipice" and then transforms it
into the (slightly more hopeful) image of life as "a little strip of
pavement over an abyss" in her October diary.

One is always struck by the way she makes her vast reading her own.

Barbara Lounsberry

On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 6:11 AM Sarah M. Hall via Vwoolf <
vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

> Demonstrates that just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean
> that they don't have an influence on you.
>
>
>
>
> On Thursday, 29 November 2018, 11:43:54 GMT, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <
> vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
>
>
> “Why is life so tragic; so like a little strip of pavement over an abyss?”
> (D2, 25 Oct 1920)
>
> Cf.
> “... reminding her [Sophia] somehow that humanity walks ever on a thin
> crust over terrific abysses.”
> (“The Old Wives’ Tale”, bk 3, 7.1)
>
> Stuart
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