The Modern Library's list of releases for the fall shows that they're paying attention to matters of quality. The titles include H.G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau," with a new introduction by Peter Straub, Bram Stoker's perennial "Dracula," Edmund Wilson's "Axel's Castle," James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," Richard Burton's translation of the "Arabian Nights," and, at long last, Frank Norris' landmark novel "McTeague: A Story of San Francisco."
"McTeague" was originally published in 1899, when Norris was only 29, and it's survived for three reasons. The first, and most obvious, is that Norris was an extremely powerful writer, far in advance of the conventional pieties embodied in most American literature of his time.The second is that "McTeague" was one of the first American novels to do for an indigenous group of characters what Emile Zola had done for the French. The novel's portrayal of the corrupting influence of money indicates Norris could have been interpreted as an early Marxist, but Norris wasn't that simple-minded; money to Norris didn't create the schisms in personality, didn't cause moral failings, it only exacerbated them.
A later generation would have called Norris' style neo-realism, but he was a more artful, evocative writer than that term indicates.
The third reason is that Erich Von Stroheim fell in love with the novel and adapted it into movie called "Greed." The Stroheim movie is harrowing and retains its power, but Norris' novel remains one of the landmarks of American literary realism. He wrote only one more book, "The Octopus," before his premature death in 1902.
If you take the time to read "McTeague," you won't be sorry.
- Wish I'd thought of this . . . "The Habits of Seven Highly Annoying People" (Bad Dog Press, $7) serves as a parodic corrective to "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" as it spotlights people who talk during movies and forget the punch lines to long jokes. These are the people that move next door; these are the people that are your relatives.
The publisher is also sponsoring a search for North America's Most Highly Annoying Person, which should be immediately slotted for broadcast instead of one of the dozens of country music awards shows.
- Wuthering who? . . . A new literary squabble has erupted in England over a 19th-century novel titled "Miss Miles." Ian King, an Edinburgh book dealer, is convinced the book was written at the end of her life by Charlotte Bronte. Upon her death, it was supposedly passed to one Mary Taylor, who published it under her own name in 1890. King says that a computer check of the book revealed a number of similarities to Bronte in vocabulary and sentence structure.
On the other hand are the scholars, who say "bosh," likewise, "poppycock." Juliet Barker, who wrote what was hailed as the definitive biography a year or so ago, says that "Miss Miles" is second rate, with wooden characters, lifeless dialogue and politics far removed from those of Charlotte Bronte.
What's at stake is a six-figure advance offered by Random House, conditional on the book being authenticated.
Stay tuned.
- Authors on the Internet . . . Did you know that there's an Internet page entitled The Douglas Adams Worship Page? Has your life beem immeasurably enriched by that knowledge? How about the Madison Smartt Bell page? Or the Robert Benchley page? (are any of Robert Benchley's books even in print?)
All this is just a shorthand way of saying that the Internet has replaced Alice's Restaurant as the place to go to get anything you want, even if it shouldn't really be available in the first place. "The Book Lover's Guide to the Inter-net" (Fawcett. $12.95) is 289 pages of densely packed information and Internet addresses where you will be able to instantly interact with all the other Alain Robbe-Grillet fans.