‘Great’ writers who are no longer read (by so many)

[french frank]

Maugham’s short stories are always wort a read.
Does anyone read Robert Louis Stevenson these days?

See 'What are you reading now?' I was reading Travels with a Donkey a few weeks back . I did, a few years ago, reread Treasure Island and was deeply impressed by Stevenson's style, maintained throughout the work. I suppose Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the work most likely to be known now.

[Padraig]

Have I missed mention of John Steinbeck? In the late Fifties I was an avid reader: Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday etc.Then The Grapes of Wrath which was my first blockbuster. And Of Mice and Men and others. There were a few films made as well - probably James Dean's East of Eden comes to mind first. Maybe it was just the era I felt I was in that drew me to John Steinbeck? But, to address the topic, about 10 years ago I bought a massive tome which had 5 of the novels and have not yet started to reread any. And it looks like I am not alone, which is a pity for me because at the time I really enjoyed his style. Not too late yet, as my doctor told me more than 10 years ago when he advised me to stop smoking, and he was right.

[eighthobstruction]

.....a great writer....One of the first chapters [GofW] is amazingly fluid and rich, as he describes the movement and variety of people and cars moving West....best writing I have ever encountered....sometimes noses get raised about him and his body of work....I have no idea why - can't books be easy to read, short and GREAT....

[Katzelmacher]

Somerset Maugham? I see there have been three films made in the 21st century (incl 2000!) but his popularity could hardly be what it once was. The titles are memorable; the ones I have: Of Human Bondage, Cakes and Ale, The Razor's Edge, Liza of Lambeth, The Moon and Sixpence. Is he worth reading again?

Wish I could think of that chap's name. Was the title 'Heredities'? Surfing completely unproductive.

I would say definitely - but be selective, as he’s probably the most variable ‘great’ writer in the english language. Hard to believe that the man who wrote Up At The Villa also wrote Of Human Bondage.

If you can find it, I’d also recommend Beverley Nichols’ short biographical work A Case of Human Bondage: the Tragic Marriage of Somerset Maugham. It’s the campest book I’ve ever read and Nichols’ withering depiction of WSM had me rolling on the floor with laughter.

[Katzelmacher]

I’d add Theatre to the list of worthwhile Maughams (filmed under a different title, with Annette Bening, a while back).

Amateurs still like to perform his plays, though when I saw a (professional) production of The Sacred Flame a while back, I wasn’t that struck.

[johncorrigan]

Have I missed mention of John Steinbeck? In the late Fifties I was an avid reader: Tortilla Flat, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday etc.Then The Grapes of Wrath which was my first blockbuster. And Of Mice and Men and others. There were a few films made as well - probably James Dean's East of Eden comes to mind first. Maybe it was just the era I felt I was in that drew me to John Steinbeck? But, to address the topic, about 10 years ago I bought a massive tome which had 5 of the novels and have not yet started to reread any. And it looks like I am not alone, which is a pity for me because at the time I really enjoyed his style. Not too late yet, as my doctor told me more than 10 years ago when he advised me to stop smoking, and he was right.

I have a book of Steinbeck's shorter novels, Padraig. Four or five years back I re-read 'Cannery Row' and 'Tortilla Flat' - I thought they were wonderful and generous books, in many ways even better than I remembered them. I also read 'The Pearl' and some short stories. I still think that Steinbeck wrote some of the greatest American short stories that I have read - his only rival, re short stories, of the authors I have read, would be the wonderful E. Annie Proulx, who is definitely not 'no longer read'.

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't imagine Colin Wilson to be a well thought-of author these days; yet, in a case of coming across wrong things for arguably right reasons, I first came across his earliest writings on finding "Ritual in the Dark" at the bookshop on Waterloo Station as a 14-year old keen to impress his contemporaries, who were given to flashing around gory titles such as "The Camp on Blood Island". The story line, however, was of a young working class lad with a questioning artistic bent from the Midlands called Gerard Sorme coming to find life and work in London, who is picked up by a man at the 1956 (?) Diaghilev Exhibition who comes to influence his outlook on life, despite turning out to be a homosexual sadist in the mould of Peter Kurten. For all the man's sophistication the implied link between being gay and depraved in the worst possible sense was tacit in the novel and widespread in society back then. Nevertheless, the word **Existentialism** constantly cropped up - an introduction to the philosophy popular with many people who didn't feel they fit in such as me - and I went on to buy "The Outsider", CW's often questionable take on it, which in turn led on to practically everything else. To say it was a shame Wilson's interpretation of a useful if incomplete approach to life seemed to be dependent on his obsessiveness about his own (hetero)sexuality - the "alternative" 1950s' as in many ways more a continuing reaction to Victorian repression than social critique was epitomised in the Sorme character's openness to the macho unsavouriness in the attitudes and behaviours of characters whose paths he crossed, and his own exploitation of women to help in finding his inner truths - is of course an embarrassing admission of where some of us were mentally in our misguided youth.

[Historian]

Speaking of DWF writers ..... how is Carson McCullers’ reputation holding up these days?

I remember reading Reflections In A Golden Eye when I was sixteen - still one of the most extraordinary books I’ve ever read - and assuming the author was a DWM because I assumed the name ‘Carson’ to be exclusively male (it was my grandfather’s middle name).

Thank you for this reference. Spotted 'Reflections in a Golden Eye' in a second-hand bookshop the other day and bought it because of this mention. As you say, extraordinary, especially for the time. I don't know any other 'Southern Gothic' to compare it with, so maybe that's another direction to go in.

[Katzelmacher]

Thank you for this reference. Spotted 'Reflections in a Golden Eye' in a second-hand bookshop the other day and bought it because of this mention. As you say, extraordinary, especially for the time. I don't know any other 'Southern Gothic' to compare it with, so maybe that's another direction to go in.

Glad you enjoyed it. There is a rarely-screened film version with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor which sticks very closely to the book. The other McCullers novels I’ve read - Ballad Of The Sad Cafe and Clock Without Hands - struck me as nowhere near as good.

You might want to try Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms as an example of Southern Gothic.

[LHC]

Glad you enjoyed it. There is a rarely-screened film version with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor which sticks very closely to the book. The other McCullers novels I’ve read - Ballad Of The Sad Cafe and Clock Without Hands - struck me as nowhere near as good.

You might want to try Truman Capote’s Other Voices, Other Rooms as an example of Southern Gothic.

McCullers first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, is very good and caused such a sensation when it was published that all her subsequent works were compared unfavourably with it on publication. It’s definitely worth reading.

[Historian]

Thank you for the recommendations, will add them to the ever-increasing 'reading to do' list.

[Katzelmacher]

McCullers first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, is very good and caused such a sensation when it was published that all her subsequent works were compared unfavourably with it on publication. It’s definitely worth reading.

I’ve read that, too. It’s her most famous book and yet I forgot all about it!

I remember thinking, on reading it, that while it demonstrated most of CM’s virtues, it also suffered from longeurs. I’d say she was more comfortable with the novella format.

[Bella Kemp]

Talking of Southern Gothic, I think we must add William Faulkner to this list. He was hugely famous in his lifetime, his books were widely bought and, of course, he won a Nobel prize, but I suspect many buyers did not get beyond the first pages. I adore his work, but confess to getting lost in the forests of his prose from time to time.

[LHC]

I’ve read that, too. It’s her most famous book and yet I forgot all about it!

I remember thinking, on reading it, that while it demonstrated most of CM’s virtues, it also suffered from longeurs. I’d say she was more comfortable with the novella format.

I think you are probably right, although it is such a remarkable debut for a 23 year old writer that you can understand why it remains her most famous work.

Incidentally, the film of Heart is a Lonely Hunter (which also seems to have disappeared from our screens) is also good, with a very moving performance from Alan Arkin as Singer.

[Katzelmacher]

I think you are probably right, although it is such a remarkable debut for a 23 year old writer that you can understand why it remains her most famous work.

Incidentally, the film of Heart is a Lonely Hunter (which also seems to have disappeared from our screens) is also good, with a very moving performance from Alan Arkin as Singer.

Indeed. And a very young (pre-Clint Eastwood!) Sondra Locke as Mick.

I seem to recall they updated the period to the (then) contemporaneous sixties, but it didn’t do any damage.