tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2637043947261382583.post2110632859817287455..comments2020-07-09T10:20:49.480+01:00Comments on Lost London literature: Carnival - Compton MackenzieLarry Heliotropehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15683136551551194977noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2637043947261382583.post-67410858927650972372012-11-26T07:39:54.399+00:002012-11-26T07:39:54.399+00:00I think the fate of CM is similar to that of many ...I think the fate of CM is similar to that of many novelists whose output might be termed 'middlebrow', and especially those who were very popular in their day. And he's probably not been in the critical doldrums sufficiently long to be taken up and rediscovered, although with the republishing of Carnival I could be wrong - we'll have to see! <br />I should really get around to posting about Sinister Street here too, although that'll mean ploughing through its 800-odd pages again! (Particularly daunting when it comes to the section dealing with Fane's Oxford days…) Maybe I'll start with Sylvia Scarlett...Larry Heliotropehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15683136551551194977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2637043947261382583.post-44391032165719491732012-11-23T10:48:56.442+00:002012-11-23T10:48:56.442+00:00Carnival was one of the first books to appear in P...Carnival was one of the first books to appear in Penguin in the Thirties, possibly even the first Penguin ever.<br />David Platzerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11550299107299835940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2637043947261382583.post-23462706207091735622012-11-23T10:14:34.479+00:002012-11-23T10:14:34.479+00:00At the beginning of the First World War, Compton M...At the beginning of the First World War, Compton Mackenzie was considered by many, including Henry James, to hold the future of the English novel in his hands. Carnival was a great success at the time and much relished by the golden youth of the day, most of the male half of which was all too soon to perish in the trenches of France; Lady Diana Manners (later Cooper) adopted Jenny Pearl's 'There's nothing wrong with this little girl' as her own. Very sad that Mackenzie and this novel have been so neglected these last decades.David Platzerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11550299107299835940noreply@blogger.com