I took the liberty of reposting the link as it seemed to have
a break on my email:
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/essay/CriticalEssays/rafflesblandish.html
and my reading of the essay years ago and recent rereading
fail to back up that Orwell "liked" the novel. He appears to
have detested what it and it's popularity stood for, while
realizing that it was still well written. His comparing it to
Facism would seem to be a dead give away that he didn't "like
it" but what do I know, I voted for Bush, so obviously I'm a
simplistic manichean who only sees the world as a dichotomy
between opposing moral forces. Steven H. Al Guthrie <
allanguthrie@ukonline.co.uk> wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "E.Borgers"
> Now, you perhaps know that Chase re-wrote No
Orchids…, his first book,
> this revision being published in 1961. The excuse
was to "modernize" it,
> but in fact I think that he was a little annoyed by
the writing poorness
> of one of his best sellers, certainly his best
known, and tried to
> improve it. In fact he also softened a bit the more
brutal scenes. Do
> not forget that during the sixties he was in full
glory and considered
> as a master of thriller noir, his fame being also
high among the general
> public… So… softening could have been somewhat
forced.
> But I read only a translation of the new version,
never the original.
I suspect Chase rewrote it to make it more his work and less
Graham Greene's. The quality of Chase's writing (by which I
mean the way he puts words together, not story constructs or
characters) deteriorates as his career progresses. Which
strikes me as very odd. But I suspect it might have happened
due to less and less input from Greene. I confess I have a
soft spot for "No Orchids", probably because it's so
over-the-top (the revised version removes everything that
made the original fresh and compelling).
"Sanctuary", on the other hand, I struggled with. I'm sure
there are a million reasons why "Sanctuary" is a much better
book than "No Orchids", but I'm afraid I found the former
ponderous.
Jay mentioned that Orwell liked "No Orchids".
"...[No Orchids] is not, as one might expect, the product of
an illiterate hack, but a brilliant piece of writing, with
hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere."
"In Mr. Chase's books there are no gentlemen and no taboos.
Emancipation is complete. Freud and Machiavelli have reached
the outer suburbs."
The entire essay, "Raffles And Miss Blandish", 1944, can be
found here:
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/essay/Critica
lEssays/rafflesblandish.html
Al
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