A series of disconnected chapters from a work which the author never lived to complete. But although it has no order as a whole, the construction of each individual chapter is so brilliant and the point so well put, that some of the leading ideas are well worth noting, eg:
A man who has read little but knows it well may make for better use of his knowledge than one who has read widely.
The novelists greatest risk is that people won't believe him when he describes the character's thoughts. He can get over this by going right ahead and assuming omniscience; by confining himself to what they say and do; or by having a narrator or even a series of narrators who can each build up a part of the picture by their different comments.
There are three ways of making one's words tell - exaggeration; understatement; or plain dry accuracy. They can all work.
There is such a thing as being too clear. Sometimes because the subject itself is vague, sometimes because it is bad manners to assume the reader can't reach the conclusion himself.
The attraction of tragedy comes from the feeling of being admitted to an unusual degree of emotional confidence; from contact with an exceptionally vital mind; and from witnessing a great feat of craftsmanship - but each of these enhancing and multiplying the effect of the next.
Wonderfully written. eg:
"Arnold flourished at a time when people of education had pretty well lived down the original shock and distress that were caused by the first serious work of scholars on the Bible. The process, as someone had called it, of robbing millions of pious souls of their hope of eternal damnation had already entered on its second stage. It had almost ceased to be seismic or cyclonic. It was becoming more tranquily detergent, evasive or decompository. And now, as promoted by Arnold, it had a sensuous beauty that charmed the young mind. Lit with the softened light of an imagination more tender and brooding than fiery, lustrous with the burnished older scholarship, twinkling with quiet ironies that seemed to take you ever so flatteringly into the confidence of a spirit august beyond words, the scepticism of Arnold had beautiful manners and entrancing tones. We are told that Ophelia could turn 'Hell itself' to 'favour and pettiness'. Arnold went one better and extracted those delights fro the tragic decline of that institution."
(notes written 1954)