Showing posts with label The Novel: An Alternative History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Novel: An Alternative History. Show all posts

Tuesday

Acquisitions (10): Steven Moore



Steven Moore: The Novel: An Alternative History (vol. 2: 2013)




Steven Moore (b.1951)


[Acquired: Saturday, October 12, 2013]:

Moore, Steven, The Novel: An Alternative History, Beginnings to 1600. New York & London: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010.

Moore, Steven, The Novel: An Alternative History, 1600 to 1800. Bloomsbury Academic. New York & London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2013.

The above cover image comes from Hermann Fenner-Behmer's Der Bücherwurm [The Bookworm] (1906) - rather a change from Carl Spitzweg's mid-nineteenth century picture of the same name:



Carl Spitzweg: The Bookworm (1850)


It seems to be rather a consistent theme with Steven Moore. Here's the cover of volume one: a fine reproduction of Jean-Jacques Henner's La Liseuse [The Reader] (1880-90):



Steven Moore: The Novel: An Alternative History (vol. 1: 2010)


"I just thought I'd slip my kit off so I could catch up on my reading ..."

If there's a volume three, following the story from 1800-2000-odd (say), I wonder what other images might be appropriate? How about this one:



Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952): Nude Woman Reading


or this one:



Leon Kroll (1884-1974): Naked Woman Reading


or this one:



Théodore Roussel (1847-1926):
Lesendes Mädchen [The Reading Girl] (1886-7)


or even this one?



Who would have thought it was such a theme for fine artists down the ages? Seriously, though, Steven Moore's is a majestic work, long in the inception, and hitting pretty much all the right themes for me.

I salute him as a master as well as a kindred spirit (trash-talking, irreligious, fundamentally dirty-minded, and - above all - addicted to complex experimental fiction), and would therefore highly recommend both of his volumes: but particularly the first ...