@canongatebooks@bookish.community
2026-08-28 11:21 UTC
I don't mind saying this because Gray said* that one of the advantages of the illustrations in the book was that if the reader was gaining nothing from a story they could skip over it and still enjoy the illustrations, so not bear the author any ill will.
* (I'm fairly confident though I can't now find the quote! If I do I will add it here...)
Replies (1)
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@canongatebooks@bookish.community 2026-08-28 11:50
I have found two quotes that make the point (though I'm not sure either is exactly the one I was thinking of). The first from the commentary in Every Short Story: “Many [illustrations] were needed to make the book enjoyable throughout, since the contortuplicate 16th-century prose of Sir Thomas Urquhart would bore most readers unless the appearance of the pages amused them.” The second from A Life in Pictures: “One story was told in the 16th-century diction Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty used in his pamphlets. Visual jokes were needed to help bored readers skip over it with no sense of loss.” (Both say 16th Century, when actually Urqhart was firmly 17thC.)