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Enemies of Promise
University of Chicago Press, 2008 Paper: 978-0-226-11504-7
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE | BUY THIS BOOK
ABOUT THIS BOOK
“Whom the gods wish to destroy,” writes Cyril Connolly, “they first call promising.” First published in 1938 and long out of print, Enemies of Promise, an “inquiry into the problem of how to write a book that lasts ten years,” tests the boundaries of criticism, journalism, and autobiography with the blistering prose that became Connolly’s trademark. Connolly here confronts the evils of domesticity, politics, drink, and advertising as well as novelists such as Joyce, Proust, Hemingway, and Faulkner in essays that remain fresh and penetrating to this day. “A fine critic, compulsive traveler, and candid autobiographer. . . . [Connolly] lays down the law for all writers who wanted to count. . . . He had imagination and decisive images flashed with the speed of wit in his mind.”—V. S. Pritchett, New York Review of Books “Anyone who writes, or wants to write, will find something on just about every single page that either endorses a long-held prejudice or outrages, and that makes it a pretty compelling read. . . . You end up muttering back at just about every ornately constructed pensée that Connolly utters, but that’s one of the joys of this book.”—Nick Hornby, The Believer “A remarkable book.”—Anthony Powell AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Cyril Connolly (1903–74) was one of the most influential critics of his time, who wrote for such publications as the New Statesman, the Observer, and the Sunday Times. He is the author of many books, including The Rock Pool and The Unquiet Grave. REVIEWS
“You cannot read Cyril Connolly for very long without wanting to acquire—and then developing—a relationship with the personality of the man himself. This small, podgy, balding, pug-faced, funny, gossipy, lazy, clever, cowardly, hedonistic, fractious, difficult man somehow manages to enshrine in his words and life everything that we aspire to, and that intellectually ennobles us, and all that is weak and worst in us as well.” “A fine critic, compulsive traveler, and candid autobiographer. . . . [Connolly] lays down the law for all writers who wanted to count. . . . He had imagination and decisive images flashed with the speed of wit in his mind.” “Anyone who writes, or wants to write, will find something on just about every single page that either endorses a long-held prejudice or outrages, and that makes it a pretty compelling read. . . . You end up muttering back at just about every ornately constructed pensée that Connolly utters, but that’s one of the joys of this book.” “A remarkable book.” “Very ably introduced by Alex Woloch. . . . One of Connolly’s great gifts was self-deprecation, and one of his easier styles was that of the tongue in the cheek. He puts one in mind of two of the great contemporaries about whom he wrote—George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh.” TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword Introduction Part One Predicament I. The Next Ten Years II. The Mandarin Dialect III. The Challenge to the Mandarins IV. The Modern Movement V. Anatomy of a Dandyism VI. A Beast in View VII. The New Mandarins VIII. The New Vernacular IX. The Cool Element of Prose Part Two The Charlock's Shade X. The Blighted Rye XI. The Blue Bugloss XII. The Thistles XIII. The Poppies XIV. The Charlock's Shade XV. The Slimy Mallows XVI. Outlook Unsettled Part Three A Georgian Boyhood XVII. Credentials XVIII. The Branching Ogham XIX. White Samite XX. Dark Ages XXI. Renaissance XXII. The Background of the Lilies XXIII. Glittering Prizes XXIV. Vale Index
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