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What does Lubbock (1921, Ch. IX) say a first-person narrator gains and loses, and when does he say it stops being enough?

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1921 criticism by Percy Lubbock (a critic, not a novelist describing his own practice). Lubbock says a narrator who is a person in the book gives the story a placed point of view, a measurable angle on the people seen, and a tone that belongs to someone; he says the loss of the author's freedom is 'more than repaid'. He adds that it gives a rambling tale a unity, with a sceptical aside. It works well when the subject is the world the narrator remembers (David Copperfield), but not when the subject is the narrator himself (Harry Richmond), because a man speaking of himself 'can only report'. He sets out a rule against pictures where drama is possible, with named exceptions (Barry Lyndon), and says Jane Eyre shows no such reason.

1921 criticism by Percy Lubbock (a critic, not a novelist describing his own practice). Lubbock says a narrator who is a person in the book gives the story a placed point of view, a measurable angle on the people seen, and a tone that belongs to someone; he says the loss of the author's freedom is 'more than repaid'. He adds that it gives a rambling tale a unity, with a sceptical aside. It works well when the subject is the world the narrator remembers (David Copperfield), but not when the subject is the narrator himself (Harry Richmond), because a man speaking of himself 'can only report'. He sets out a rule against pictures where drama is possible, with named exceptions (Barry Lyndon), and says Jane Eyre shows no such reason. Curator qualifications: First-person gains and losses are Lubbock's readings of named novels. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
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  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18961/pg18961.txt",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    }
  ]
}

Evidence claims

  • [sourced_fact] 1921 criticism by Percy Lubbock (a critic, not a novelist describing his own practice). Lubbock says a narrator who is a person in the book gives the story a placed point of view, a measurable angle on the people seen, and a tone that belongs to someone; he says the loss of the author's freedom is 'more than repaid'. He adds that it gives a rambling tale a unity, with a sceptical aside. It works well when the subject is the world the narrator remembers (David Copperfield), but not when the subject is the narrator himself (Harry Richmond), because a man speaking of himself 'can only report'. He sets out a rule against pictures where drama is possible, with named exceptions (Barry Lyndon), and says Jane Eyre shows no such reason. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts source

Rights

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Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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