Amy Reardon is a quintessential agent, with an understanding of literary merit, interest in international copyright and the inner mechanisms of publishing, and a practical mind.
“I’m going to set my sisters afloat in literature.”
A very Jasper Milvain statement. Imagine anyone these days saying: I’m going to set myself afloat in literature! (And quickly sinking…)
“I must marry someone with money, and a good deal of it.”
One has to acknowledge Jasper Milvain’s practical ambition. Men and women like Jasper are part of the force that keeps literature going.
Join us on December 13 for a virtual discussion of New Grub Street with Yiyun Li.
“If I had the means, I should have devoted myself to the life of a scholar. That, I quite believe, is my natural life, it’s only the influence of recent circumstances that has made me a writer of novels.”
Reardon feels the pressure of previous success and the ‘industrial manufacture’ of novels in the face of financial stress and seems driven into a deep illness, as Jasper identifies. What is that illness and what is its origin? His spirit is sick, he’s even questioning his vocation. He’s paralyzed. I feel for Reardon.
I wonder - isn’t what Jasper is doing something quite different from Reardon? To me, it seems like Jasper is writing short pieces for magazines, which seems hard to compare directly to writing novels.
Edwin and Jasper both hold definite ideas about who they are and their literary limitations. I can't help but be frustrated by their self-affirmations - it seems they entertain no prospects for change in their interests or capabilities. They pretend to know themselves so well.
As Jasper exults over his new prospects, Edwin replies, "that's the kind of thing that inspires me with envy. I could know more write such a paper than an article on Fluxions." And Jasper says, "I have the special faculty of extempore writer. Never in my life shall I do anything of solid literary value; I shall always despise the people I ride for." (Meanwhile, he has no problem imagining the significant change for his sisters as he says, "I'm going to set my sisters afloat in literature."
Later in the chapter Edwin admits that he seriously doubts that he will ever be able to write again. Jasper doesn't help the matter when Edwin speculates on working in a newspaper office and Jasper replies, "you are the last man to have anything to do with journalism."