In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society on Tuesday about his career, [Nobel Laureat N.J.] Naipaul, who has been described as the “greatest living writer of English prose”, was asked if he considered any woman writer his literary match. He replied: “I don’t think so.” Of Austen he said he “couldn’t possibly share her sentimental ambitions, her sentimental sense of the world”.
He felt that women writers were “quite different”. He said: “I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me.”
The author, who was born in Trinidad, said this was because of women’s “sentimentality, the narrow view of the world”. “And inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too,” he said.
He added: “My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh. I don’t mean this in any unkind way.”
My observation is this — a century from now there will be more living people who will have read and liked Jane Austen’s works than who will have read Naipaul’s at all.
In other words, the status quo will be unchanged.
An Observation On Ego And Sexism
You have to love the arrogance of this guy.
My observation is this — a century from now there will be more living people who will have read and liked Jane Austen’s works than who will have read Naipaul’s at all. In other words, the status quo will be unchanged.Posted by: Greg at 08:13 PM
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