Bookish Bullies

Dreams of Adventure, Deeds of Empire is a leading entry for the Trilling Prize, an award I make annually at the winter solstice, in the privacy of my study and in the company of my cat. The prize goes to a book of literary criticism, irreproachable in its solemnity, whose charms can only be recognized after consuming three quarts of faculty sherry.

In Professor Green’s case, the title is impressive, the concept is ambitious, the research is sound, but the work as a whole is astonishing in its dullness. There were sections which required that I resort to skimming in order to relieve the buzzing in my head. There was an exegesis of the works of Fenimore Cooper which required out-and-out skipping, lest I slump in my chair like a man suddenly struck dead by heart failure. I am the first man to rise at the trumpet-blares and drum-thumps of Elgar, but the Professor of English from Tufts University can sing only lullabies.

MR

About the Author

Mitchell S. Ross

Featured Tags

Dreams of Adventure, Deeds of Empire is a leading entry for the Trilling Prize, an award I make annually at the winter solstice, in the privacy of my study and in the company of my cat. The prize goes to a book of literary criticism, irreproachable in its solemnity, whose charms can only be recognized after consuming three quarts of faculty sherry.

In Professor Green’s case, the title is impressive, the concept is ambitious, the research is sound, but the work as a whole is astonishing in its dullness. There were sections which required that I resort to skimming in order to relieve the buzzing in my head. There was an exegesis of the works of Fenimore Cooper which required out-and-out skipping, lest I slump in my chair like a man suddenly struck dead by heart failure. I am the first man to rise at the trumpet-blares and drum-thumps of Elgar, but the Professor of English from Tufts University can sing only lullabies.