ENGL 4310

After scanning the index of the Porter letters book I looked up what she had to say about other authors, and I must say I was rather depressed about what she wrote of two of my favorites (but then again, I have a lot of favorites.)

Of W. Somerset Maugham she writes:

First off: Somerset Maugham is a phony…Years ago I read Of Human Bondage, and that is a good solid, airless, beefy English novel, his masterpiece. For the rest he tells good, made-up tales that might entertain you if you hadn’t got a God’s other thing to read and were bored anyhow. He is a trivial, conventional minded, professional hack and I think it is perfectly proper that he should be elected Dean of English Lit. at once…He has all the qualifications, including the stipulated half-ton of half-good books (169).

Of Oscar Wilde she writes:

Oscar always did make me queasy, I always thought him one of the most tiresome men ever born—there is in English letters only one other that bores me as much, Lord Byron (401).

I thought it somewhat funny that she wrote so disparagingly of these two authors. I find that the main source of humor in Porter’s writings is irony, something that she shares in common with Maugham and Wilde. Additionally, like these two gentlemen, her stories revolve primarily around human relationships and social commentary. She creates very real characters but often looks at them under a satirical lens, again like Wilde and Maugham. In fact, I think these authors share many traits in common that attract me to their writing styles.

P.S. I actually wrote this blog prior to today’s class and never got around to posting it (mainly because blogger seems to hate me) but I have a little mini-treat to add after someone’s revelation about a “girl book” today. Here is what Porter has to say about that book:

“I consider Wuthering Heights the purest act of genius in the world of the novel; nobody male or female has ever beat Emily Bronte at that!” (503)

“Sample of higher education: the other day a young woman in the advanced fiction class said the most wonderful picture she had ever seen in her life was Wuthering Heights. I told her she should read the book, too. She was thrilled. “Oh,” said she “Did they make a book of it?” (365)