I’m glad you posted this because I would have absolutely 💯 bought Elisabeth if I saw it at a bookstore, without even cracking it open, based on the cover alone. But I also appreciate that you save bad reviews for very old books.
Also I love the movie Jurassic Park but never read the book—so I’ll pick that up next time I’m in the bookstore! (Which will be any minute now because…bookstores)
Eric Rohmer only started writing and making films at 30. He famously made his first feature length film just before he hit 40. I'm not sure the dates add up in your post!
Interesting, so he wrote the novel way before he started making films, a small asterisk is needed to the above then-- but the overall point still stands, he's got the sensibility of filmmaker/screenwriter not a novelist!
Maybe! I haven't read Elisabeth yet but I plan to - have been suckered by the marketing!
He did do something remarkable though - his six moral tales series of films - shorts and four feature-length - were based on six short stories he wrote. Unfortunately, I can only find a Spanish translation of the collection which will take me at least a year to read! It was published in the UK in the 1970s, in English, perhaps on the back of interest in his films. Quite a feat to get all six adaptations made.
I think he did it in this order, hard to work out because of the translation coming out so much later than the first film - either way, writing in trad prose was obviously part of his creative process.
The beautiful simplicity of the entire McNally Editions collection is why I have so many of them. I read the first twelve they put out, before they switched to their current design iteration. I have been more selective with them since. But I do bring at least one copy of every book they publish into the bookstore because I love the project. I really wish they would reissue Margaret Kennedy's entire oeuvre, because I have loved the two they put out: Troy Chimneys and The Feast, both stellar.
I’m glad you posted this because I would have absolutely 💯 bought Elisabeth if I saw it at a bookstore, without even cracking it open, based on the cover alone. But I also appreciate that you save bad reviews for very old books.
Also I love the movie Jurassic Park but never read the book—so I’ll pick that up next time I’m in the bookstore! (Which will be any minute now because…bookstores)
Eric Rohmer only started writing and making films at 30. He famously made his first feature length film just before he hit 40. I'm not sure the dates add up in your post!
Interesting, so he wrote the novel way before he started making films, a small asterisk is needed to the above then-- but the overall point still stands, he's got the sensibility of filmmaker/screenwriter not a novelist!
Maybe! I haven't read Elisabeth yet but I plan to - have been suckered by the marketing!
He did do something remarkable though - his six moral tales series of films - shorts and four feature-length - were based on six short stories he wrote. Unfortunately, I can only find a Spanish translation of the collection which will take me at least a year to read! It was published in the UK in the 1970s, in English, perhaps on the back of interest in his films. Quite a feat to get all six adaptations made.
I think he did it in this order, hard to work out because of the translation coming out so much later than the first film - either way, writing in trad prose was obviously part of his creative process.
I loved reading this!
The beautiful simplicity of the entire McNally Editions collection is why I have so many of them. I read the first twelve they put out, before they switched to their current design iteration. I have been more selective with them since. But I do bring at least one copy of every book they publish into the bookstore because I love the project. I really wish they would reissue Margaret Kennedy's entire oeuvre, because I have loved the two they put out: Troy Chimneys and The Feast, both stellar.
Thanks for this! I found it helpful as I work on the proposal for my next book