(DOWNLOAD) "Ambrose Silk, The Yellow Book, And the Ivory Tower: Influence and Jamesian Aesthetics in Put out More Flags (Critical Essay)" by Evelyn Waugh Newsletter and Studies " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Ambrose Silk, The Yellow Book, And the Ivory Tower: Influence and Jamesian Aesthetics in Put out More Flags (Critical Essay)
- Author : Evelyn Waugh Newsletter and Studies
- Release Date : January 22, 2009
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 65 KB
Description
Contemporary reviews of Waugh's Put Out More Flags were hesitant to attribute to Ambrose Silk any role greater than that of buffoon. Kate O'Brien's review in the Spectator, 3 April 1942, writes Ambrose off with one sentence: 'And there is a new character, a whining pansy called Ambrose Silk, who has an absurd adventure.' [1] Alan Pryce-Jones made no mention at all of Ambrose in his 11 April 1942 review in the New Statesman. [2] Yet perhaps Ambrose is not to blame for this critical underestimation. The 1942 novel can be read as an apprehensive stylistic transition between Waugh's early satirical technique and later eschatological mode, and if any middle style exists in Waugh's corpus, POMF is one of few examples. There can be little surprise that Basil Seal, the more stylistically robust persona, has been customarily seen as the central concern of the narrative. But in undervaluing the parallel story, that of Ambrose Silk and his hopeless attempt to produce a re-imagined Yellow Book for mid-century, Waugh's narrative is rendered as a wartime comedy of billeting and roguery. There can be no mistake that Ambrose's Ivory Tower has been conceived as a double of its most obvious source, Henry Harland and Aubrey Beardsley's infamous 1890s journal of decadence, The Yellow Book. Waugh alludes to the short-lived journal throughout his portrayal of Ambrose's project: "The Cafe Royal, perhaps because of its distant associations with Oscar and Aubrey, was one of the places where Ambrose preened himself, spread his feathers and felt free to take wing. He had left his persecution mania downstairs with his hat and umbrella. He defied the universe." [3] Among Waugh's dandy-aesthete figures, Ambrose is unusually self-conscious and insecure, but the lingering appeal of Wilde and Beardsley assuage his self-loathing. However, he is often hostile to the literature of the Yellow Nineties. When his publisher suggests that the Ivory Tower will be 'a kind of new Yellow Book,' Ambrose becomes upset. 'Geoffrey,' he whines, 'How can you be so unkind?' (POMF 111). Later, though, Ambrose is more resigned: