Reading Style

March 31, 2014
Although this charming and erudite collection of essays originated in a series of lectures delivered at Columbia University, professor and critic Davidson (Breeding: A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century) thinks of it more as “a field notebook,” a sampler of sentences, and a “modest manifesto.” She studies sentences that have “a high glimmer factor,” with examples by writers ranging from Jane Austen to Harry Stephen Keeler. Davidson understands that reading is largely a matter of taste, and offers both apologies and helpful instructions for reading her book, freeing readers to nibble off corners of essays and move on if necessary. Readers familiar with the works discussed will have an edge over those encountering Henry James or Georges Perec for the first time. However, Davidson’s lengthy quotes and in-depth analysis provide enough context to understand the intricacies of The Golden Bowl, or the challenges and pleasures of a novel that completely avoids the vowel “e,” or a novella whose only vowel is “e.” Most valuably, Davidson stresses the importance of reading for both enrichment and something many of us may have forgotten: pleasure. Agent: Kathleen Anderson, Anderson Literary Management.

June 1, 2014

Do not expect a writing guide here; Davidson (English, Columbia Univ.) examines ways of reading and writing, creating a work of homage to her favorite writers, many of whom are not popular or well known. She starts with the usual suspects, such as Jane Austen and Henry James, but eventually turns to those who are clearly her pet authors: Georges Perec, Roland Barthes, W.G. Sebald, Alan Hollinghurst, and others. Davidson spends a lot of time in the Jamesian and Proustian schools, placing authors squarely within either one. The result is a rather dense log of the author's favorite wordsmiths and excerpts from their works; it lacks the dissection at the sentence level that one might expect from the subtitle. Finally, she questions the act of novel writing itself: "it seems to me fatally artificial." VERDICT Academics of a small niche of English literature may find this enlightening, while other readers will likely find it more perplexing and obtuse than its rewards warrant.--Linda White, Maplewood, MN

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