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''Enemies of Promise''〔ISBN 0-233-97936-0〕 is a critical and autobiographical work written by Cyril Connolly and first published in 1938. It comprises three parts, the first dedicated to Connolly's observations about literature and the literary world of his time, the second a listing of adverse elements that affect the ability to be a good writer and the last an account of Connolly's early life. The overarching theme of the book is the search for an explanation of why Connolly, though widely recognised as a leading man of letters and a highly distinguished critic, failed to produce a major work of literature. ==Part 1 "Predicament"== This part consists of an erudite discussion of literary styles, with Connolly posing the question of what the following ten years would bring in the world of literature and what sort of writing would last. He summarises the two main styles as follows. :"We have seen that there are two styles which it is convenient to describe as the realist, or vernacular, the style of rebels, journalists, common-sense addicts, and unromantic observers of human destiny – and the Mandarin, the artificial style of men of letters or of those in authority who make letters their spare time occupation" His examples of exponents of the Mandarin style include Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, Aldous Huxley and James Joyce, the dominant literary character of the 1920s. Examples of vernacular or realist exponents include Ernest Hemingway, Somerset Maugham, Christopher Isherwood and George Orwell, the dominant force in the 1930s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Enemies of Promise」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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