Talk:Memoirs of a Midget

Erroneous quotation?

• "After a long period of neglect de la Mare may be beginning to be seen as the remarkable writer that he is." -John Bayley (The New York Review of Book [sic])

This quotation from the late English critic John Bayley from the book jacket blurb (Paul Dry reprint) may be misattributed, as I can't find it using the NYRB index or on Project Muse or Jstor. I wonder if jacket blurbs count as a "reliable source" for wikipedia. I tend to doubt it so am going to "be bold" and take it out, though I invite anyone else to put it back if they find a more precise attribution for it. I do know that Bayley was a fan. Mballen (talk) 20:45, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

quotations not in essay form

These quotes, in list form, did not seem adequately worked out to go under the heading "reception"; and I know lists are frowned on, so I have removed them and substituted material from Michael Dirda in essay form. For future reference here they are. Also, I don't think "Good Reads" is the best source for a wiki article. (Left over from when article was a stub?) Other such quotes can doubtless also be found, as well. I recall from reading a biography of De la Mare that T.S. Elliot and Elizabeth Bishop had a high opinion of De la Mare, at least I know Bishop admired "Come Hither". But realism came back in the 1930s and 40s and De la Mare began to be looked down on as escapist. His reputation has never recovered.

• "...Memoirs of a Midget is a triumphant work of fiction: a portrait of a complex heroine who the reader will ultimately find quite as compelling as Jane or Cathy...." -Jean Hannah Edelstein (The Guardian)
• "...But as the pages turn, the revelation comes, and the fearful odyssey of a midget in a full-sized world rings increasingly true as the perfect expression of what every human being—regardless of size—feels throughout life, as both child and adult: that the world does not fit, that we were not meant for it, that every act of love we tender towards the world is met with misunderstanding and rebuff." -Michael Alec Rose (Book Page)

References