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A review by bobbygw
Moments of Truth: Twelve Twentieth-century Women Writers by Lorna Sage
5.0
Terrific. Sage, sadly no longer with us, was a phenomenally and thoroughly well-read essayist, journalist and critic of literature, not just of the 20th century, but from the 18th. She not only understood what the writers and their work were about, she knew about the culture and society within which they lived, engaged and often struggled.
This collection of some of her journalism - there's another fab, broader and larger selection titled Good As Her Word, also published by Fourth Estate - is focused on a range of brilliant women writers. They're not linked in any way, other than the writers are all female and great and the fact that these pieces all reflect Sage's tremendous insight, appreciation and sensitivity for the work of these writers, leaving you always with a deeper understanding of their psychology and renewed interest in their novels.
From an obituary of Irish Murdoch (both as a novelist and philosopher, and the relationship between these two), to intelligent essays on perhaps lesser known novelists Christine Brooke-Rose and Djuna Barnes (and certainly this applies to Violet Trefusis), to the well-known Edith Wharton, Angela Carter (I think she's the best critic on Carter's work - and has written a book entirely on her), Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys, Christina Stead, Jane Bowles, and Simone de Beauvoir, you will finish this collection with a passion to read the novels Sage discusses. What better recommendation for a literary critic's work?
This collection of some of her journalism - there's another fab, broader and larger selection titled Good As Her Word, also published by Fourth Estate - is focused on a range of brilliant women writers. They're not linked in any way, other than the writers are all female and great and the fact that these pieces all reflect Sage's tremendous insight, appreciation and sensitivity for the work of these writers, leaving you always with a deeper understanding of their psychology and renewed interest in their novels.
From an obituary of Irish Murdoch (both as a novelist and philosopher, and the relationship between these two), to intelligent essays on perhaps lesser known novelists Christine Brooke-Rose and Djuna Barnes (and certainly this applies to Violet Trefusis), to the well-known Edith Wharton, Angela Carter (I think she's the best critic on Carter's work - and has written a book entirely on her), Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys, Christina Stead, Jane Bowles, and Simone de Beauvoir, you will finish this collection with a passion to read the novels Sage discusses. What better recommendation for a literary critic's work?