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'Owing to his giving me the books, am now reading C by M. Baring. I am surprised to find it as good as it is. But how good is it? Easy to say it is not a great book. But what qualities does it lack? That it adds nothing to one's vision of life, perhaps. Yet it is hard to find a serious flaw.'
Saturday 18 June 1927: 'I read -- any trash. Maurice Baring; sporting memoirs.'
I offer you my sincere & almost violent congratulations on 'C'. I have been greatly impressed by it. It held me throughout its immense length.
I’ve finished Baring’s 'Cat’s Cradle'. 770 large pages. Well, it isn’t so bad, though highly curious in technique. . . . I’m now reading Stendhal’s 'Promenades dans Rome'.
I read C.C. ['Cat's Cradle'] very carefully in a fortnight: about 50 pp. a day. It held me all right, though not quite so strongly as 'C'. As with 'C'., 'C. C.' is strongest & best in the last ¼ or 1/3. . . . My boy, you may have made 70 corrections in the new edition, but there are plenty more to make. . . .