Posted by Joffre on 21/9/2009, 14:22:49
68.222.73.36
This is a question I had long ago, as far back as Snow, that I never got around to asking.
What do you all think of the comments or recommendations printed on the backs or sometimes on a page in the front of books?
My edition of The Vicar of Wakefield is from Signet. I has these comments:
"There was no kind of writing that he did not practice, nor did he touch any but to adorn it." Samuel Johnson
"With that sweet story Goldsmith found entry into every castle and hamlet in Europe." Thackeray
"... the influence (Goldsmith) exercised upon me, just at the chief point of my development, cannot be estimated." Goethe
"The most exquisite of all romance in miniature." Lord Byron
Quite a list of recommendations, though Thackeray's seems a little ambiguous.
What do you think of the recommendations of contemporary authors on the contemporary works of others?
I'll bring up Snow again. My copy has on the cover praise from Margaret Atwood and John Updike.
My copy of Cynthia Ozick's Heir to the Glimmering World has a comment from Alice Munro.
John Banville's Book of Evidence has a comment from Don Delillo.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold has comments from Graham Greene and Daphne DuMaurier.
I suppose that's enough examples. The question, really, is do you think authors of some established reputation would supply positive comments for books they don't actually believe in? Positive comments from authors I believe in certainly does add a bit to my interest in a book or author I don't know of.
