Posts
I CAN'T remember if I ever told you about meeting Hugh Walpole when I was at Oxford getting my D.Litt. I was staying with the Vice-Chancellor at Magdalen and he blew in and spent the day. It was just after Hilaire Belloc had said that I was the best living English writer. It was just a gag, of course, but it worried Hugh terribly. He said to me, 'Did you see what Belloc said about you?' I said I had. — 'I wonder why he said that.' 'I wonder,' I said. Long silence. 'I can't imagine why he said that,' said Hugh. I said I couldn't, either. Another long silence. 'It seems such an extraordinary thing to say!'—'Most extraordinary.' Long silence again. 'Ah,well,' said Hugh, having apparently found the solution, 'the old man's getting very old.'
P. G. Wodehouse, Performing Flea. A Self-Portrait in Letters, ed. W. Townend (Copyright 1953), p. 128.
Having read at least a paragraph of Belloc's statement, it is not clear to me that Belloc meant it as a gag. And having read a little of Hugh Walpole's fiction, I'd be surprised if Walpole considered himself to be in the running.
ReplyDeleteSure he was serious. I read one short story by Walpole and I think it's one of the most brilliant and profoundly disturbing stories I ever read. I could not bear to read it again. I simply could not bear to read it again
DeleteSo Walpole was capable of absolute greatness and, of course, knew it
Delete