snippets, 5-12-16

The man who made the novel (New Yorker). I couldn't read too far in this article for fear of spoilers - I've been reading Clarissa for the last six or seven weeks. It's very long (it makes Lorna Doone seem like a short story), but it's great. A favorite line (Miss Anna Howe writing to Clarissa, about an unwanted suitor): "If my eyes would carry with them the execution which the eyes of the basilisk are said to do, I would make it my first business to see this creature." Heh. A line from the linked article says, "Richardson was fond of saying that his characters' letters are written 'to the moment'; that is, as the characters experience the events they describe." Another way of interpreting this statement is that if a character says they'll get back to you next Tuesday, it's likely to be at least that long before you see them again.