Lestrade's Victorians
2012; Boston University; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/arn.2012.0024
ISSN2327-6436
Autores Tópico(s)Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
ResumoLestrade’s Victorians RICHARD JENKYNS Back in the seventies, when I was writing a book about the Victorians and ancient Greece, I was warned off the subject by both the Professor of Greek and the Professor of Latin at my university, by the former on the ground that it was too difficult, and by the latter on the ground that it was too easy. Both of them had a point. Two lifetimes might seem necessary for reception studies: one to master the ancient world, and one for more recent history. On the other hand, classical scholars have piled into this area in recent years, and published rapidly and prolifically. Which view does Goldhill take? A bit of both, it would seem.* He argues that reception study is of its nature a very hard and complex business; he has learned “painfully,” he says, “how hard it is to do interdisciplinary work seriously.” He is referring , however, to the supposed conceptual difficulty, not to the difficulty of getting oneself sufficiently informed, and his book ranges unembarrassed over three centuries and several countries. Aware that he comes late to the study of nineteenth -century reception, he duly acknowledges the pioneers, but indicates that he will bring to the subject more rigor, breadth, and critical sophistication. The breadth is of a curious kind. Chapters 5 to 7 have a limited and coherent theme: historical novels, mostly British, about the ancient world (classical, Jewish, and Christian). The other chapters are miscellaneous. Chapter 1 discusses a few paintings by J. W. Waterhouse. Chapter 2, after some *Simon Goldhill, Victorian Culture and Classical Antiquity: Art, Opera, Fiction, and the Proclamation of Modernity. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011. viii + 352 pages. $45.00. arion 20.1 spring/summer 2012 scrappy observations on the Victorian reception of Sappho, focuses on a painting by Alma-Tadema, Sappho and Alcaeus . Chapter 3, on the reception of Gluck, is concerned mainly with productions of his operas by Berlioz and Wagner in the mid-nineteenth century, and another production in London in 1911. Chapter 4, on Wagner, considers his antiSemitism , and then Wieland Wagner’s productions of the operas after the Second World War. Then follow the chapters on historical novelists. The book ends, bizarrely, with the pornographic photography of Andy Warhol. Goldhill is lively and vigorous, with a wide range of interests , and I had rather high hopes of this book, but the result is disappointing. It shows signs of haste. On his last appearance in the first chapter, Waterhouse becomes Waterstone. As Goldhill himself remarks in another context, Freud would be interested in that. Grammar fails in a number of sentences. The mistakes may often be unimportant individually, but cumulatively they are significant. Many of the numerous spelling errors are slips of the keyboard (“encyclopaedia,” etc., wrong in three different ways), but some suggest an imperfect literacy: “lightening” for “lightning” (twice), “termagent ,” “bragadaccio”—a rough stab at “braggadocio.” In French phrases about half the accents are missing, and we also get “de rigeur,” “la dance,” and “d’haut en bas,” while “Agamemnon vengée” turns the king female. In other languages , the wrong accent is used or the accent put on the wrong letter: “Che faró,” Caldéron, Tannhaüser. Wagner is also assigned operas called Maestersinger and Rheinmaidens (“the second act of Rheinmaidens” should be “the second scene of Rheingold”). Greek is transliterated sometimes with macrons, sometimes without. “Austrio-Hungarian” and “divina comedia ” are solecisms. “Latifundiae” is not a Latin word. Leiden is not in Germany. Edmund Gosse and his father are turned into one person. “The famous ‘Agamemnon’ theme” (from Strauss’ Elektra) is actually the contrasting theme of Elektra’s hatred. Among the errors in proper names are Millman for Milman, Rosetti for Rossetti, Grosvener for Grosvenor, Christchurch for lestrade’s victorians 182 Christ Church, Whyte’s Professor for White’s Professor, Waterbabies for The Water Babies, “The Maiden’s Tribute . . .” for “The Maiden Tribute . . . ,” Marianna for Mariana, Wiederman for Wiedemann, Gerôme for Gérôme, Lady Chatterly for Lady Chatterley, Brünhilde for Brünnhilde, Niebelung for Nibelung , Gibbichungen for Gibichungen. Goldhill spells the Lady of Shalott in three different ways; third time lucky. We...
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