tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8704237975096102484.post3572561409369023751..comments2024-03-17T06:47:15.292+00:00Comments on The Brooknerian: Anita and the LandladiesThe Brooknerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15396427983022927448noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8704237975096102484.post-69241184919153080062018-03-02T07:32:45.190+00:002018-03-02T07:32:45.190+00:00Good to hear from you. The landladies memoir was n...Good to hear from you. The landladies memoir was new to me and a magnificent discovery. Thanks for the pointers to the Burlington. I do agree with you on the class matter - her ear and eye are acute even in a non-British context. Her review of Graham Robb's Parisians is also worth a read. https://www.spectator.co.uk/2010/04/the-people-and-the-place/The Brooknerianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15396427983022927448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8704237975096102484.post-73929038385521954922018-03-01T17:51:35.465+00:002018-03-01T17:51:35.465+00:00Many thanks for sharing this article by Anita Broo...Many thanks for sharing this article by Anita Brookner in LRB. I do remember reading this essay many years ago. It gives a glimpse of her early life in Paris and her acute observation and detective-like sharp eyes about the life around her incredibly impressed me. This article reminds me of some of her early exhibition reviews she wrote for ‘The Burlington Magazine’ while she was living in France. She described not only the artworks on display but also her travel to get to these exhibitions around France. What struck me about this LRB article is not about her demanding or indifferent landladies but about her observation on class as she moved from one lodging in an affluent neighbour to another which was not too affluent. <br /><br />Another interesting point is that her life in Paris represents the attitude of the flâneur (or should I say, the flâneuse?) like Baudelaire's flâneur who tend to be a drifter and outsider both metaphoric and literal sense on the streets of Paris and observing all the myriad of modern life in the city. I like your scholarly comparison of her fictional characters in this post. The loneliness and melancholy aspect of her experience of staying at the rental accommodation and hotels also echoes the main protagonist, Sasha Jansen in Jean Rhys’s novel, “Good Morning, Midnight” and “After Leaving Mr Mackenzie”. <br />A Super Dilettantehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02640893790909916004noreply@blogger.com