Exceedingly Good Prose
I recently read Kipling's autobiography Something of Myself, which contrary to the introduction by Richard Holmes isn't a Modernist masterpiece but a reticent and traditional memoir, but no less fascinating for that. How about this for a sparkling aside:
"(Also, by pure luck, I had sight of the first sickening uprush and vomit of iridescent coal-dusted water into the hold of a ship, a crippled iron hulk, sinking at her moorings.)"
"(Also, by pure luck, I had sight of the first sickening uprush and vomit of iridescent coal-dusted water into the hold of a ship, a crippled iron hulk, sinking at her moorings.)"
posted by Tony Williams at 5:40 PM
2 Comments:
He was a brilliant writer in some ways. A great coiner of quotable phrases and a fine stylist generally. It's an interesting exercise (assuming you agree with the premise) to try to complete this sentence:
'Kipling was exceptionally talented but in the end he doesn't measure up to the true greats because...'
Quite right, Harry. Randall Jarrell touches on this subject in the section on Kipling in 'Kipling, Auden & Co. I wonder if it is partly do to do with Kipling's professionalism - his great technical skill may have been acquired through working as a journalist under pressure, but the same conditions might also have had negative effects. But I would need to read more of him than I have done to be confident of any judgment.
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