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Letters to Dead Authors

Andrew Lang

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Letters to Dead Authors | Andrew Lang

Letters to Dead Authors

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With twenty two letters, addressed to various already deceased authors, Andrew Lang discusses literary subjects with his usual humor and acidity. The impulse for the writing of the letters came, almost as a joke, from the editor of the 'St. James's Gazette,' and sixteen of the letters collected in the volume appeared first in that journal. According to the author, "some of the Letters are written rather to suit the Correspondent than to express the writer's own taste or opinions"; in all of them, though, the reader will find the charming wit of their author.
to the mysteries which they call 'Matric' knows, but I prefer not to tell. Concerning the square cap, then, let this be sufficient. Now, the priest received me courteously, and when I asked him, concerning Herodotus, whether he were a true man or not, he smiled, and answered 'Abu Goosh,' which, in the tongue of the Arabians, means 'The Father of Liars.' Then he went on to speak concerning Herodotus, and he said in his discourse that Herodotus not only told the thing which was not, but that he did so wilfully, as one knowing the truth but concealing it. For example, quoth he, 'Solon never went to see Croesus, as Herodotus avers; nor did those about Xerxes ever dream dreams; but Herodotus, out of his abundant wickedness, invented these things.

'Now behold,' he went on, 'how the curse of the Gods falls upon Herodotus. For he pretends that he saw Cadmeian inscriptions at Thebes. Now I do not believe there were any Cadmeian inscriptions there: therefore Herodotus is most manifestly lying. Moreover, this Herodotus never speaks of Sophocles the Athenian, and why not? Because he, being a child at school, did not learn Sophocles by heart: for the tragedies of Sophocles could not have been learned at school before they were written, nor can any man quote a poet whom he never learned at school. Moreover, as all those about Herodotus knew Sophocles well, he could not appear to them to be learned by showing that he knew what they knew also.' Then I thought the priest was making game and sport, saying first that Herodotus could know no poet whom he had not learned at school, and then saying that all the men of his time well knew this poet, 'about whom everyone was talking'. But the priest seemed not to know that Herodotus and Sophocles were friends, which is proved by this, that Sophocles wrote an ode in praise of Herodotus.

Then he went on, and though I were to write with a hundred hands (like Briareus, of whom Homer makes menti

Clare 11/01/2022
I usually really enjoy Lang on books, but this was not one of his finest, disappointingly.
Jessie 12/29/2021
An interesting novel to which an author provides his insight, love, and concerns for authors.
Dr.J.G. 09/14/2021
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LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS
by Andrew Lang (1892)
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Dr.J.G. 09/14/2021
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LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS
by Andrew Lang (1892)
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Sotiris 08/09/2020
Is this the perfect way to make a critique on a poet and his work? Probably
Georgie 01/17/2015
Nah, sorry...

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