the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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W. Somerset Maugham : Liza of Lambeth

'I've just finished reading "Liza of Lambeth" It is certainly worth reading--but whether it's worth talking about is another question. I at any rate have nothing to say except this--that I do not like society novels--and Liza to me is just a society novel--society of a kind.[...] It will be fairly successful I believe--for it is a "genre" picture without any atmosphere and consequently no reader can live in it. He just looks on--and that is what the general reader prefers.' Conrad then compares the novel to George Du Maurier's illustrations.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      Print: Book

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