[ilds] The Folio Justine

[James Gifford]

Hello Suni,

It's nice to see a new name on the list!  Welcome aboard.

I'll wait for Richard to post his letter, but having seen it, I can at 
least comment that Richard's was a more concise comment on the 
recto-verso tension between Porter's piece and Karl Orend's review (ie: 
the error about /The Black Book/ being Durrell's first work).  He also 
notes a common error about the Dodecanese.  Pine took greater pains to 
point to Porter's fine and sensitive reading as well as the quality of 
the Folio printing, or in essence, he praised the book and its worth to 
potential buyers while corrected a point of fact.

While I also enjoyed reading Haag's response, it's longer, tends to 
focus more on his own view of the Quartet (though his is, admittedly, a 
fascinating perspective), and does not aim to praise the new Folio 
edition in quite the same way.  In other words, Haag's comments may not 
encourage readers to pick up the book.

I'd also disagree with Michael about Durrell's first two novels, mainly 
for what I suspect is the nature of Richard's disagreement: that "pick 
up the book" encouragement.  He feels interest in Durrell's first two 
novels (both just now reprinted after 70 years) "is confined to those 
wanting to trace Durrell's first footsteps."  This does not particularly 
encourage readers to pick up a copy.  For me, having taught /Pied Piper 
of Lovers/ a few times and now having edited both of those early novels, 
I am quite sure they have a broader appeal and would likely be easier 
for a casual reader to engage with.  I am, however, biased in that matter...

I look forward to seeing more of your comments.

My best,
James

Suni Rafa wrote:
> Even though the TLS did not print Richard Pine's letter, I'm sure we 
> would be most interested to read it here in this forum.  Would Mr Pine 
> kindly post it, with our thanks.
> 
> Suni Rafa