Jerome K. Jerome: Update of an Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him—II

Jerome K. Jerome: Update of an Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him—II By Carl Markgraf and Rüssel Wiebe Portland State University Bibliographical entries and annotations are grouped under the appropriate works, listed alphabetically following General Criticism and Biography. [Also see "Jerome K. Jerome: An Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him," 26:1 (1983), 83-132, and "Jerome K. Jerome: Update of an Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him," 30:2 (1987), 180-211.] General Criticism and Biography Ackroyd, Peter. "Middle-class humorist," Spectator, 4 September 1982, pp. 2021 . [Rev. Connolly's JKJ biog. and Three Men, annotated and introduced by Christopher Matthew and Benny Green.] JKJ was "a most unlikely figure to have invented the easy-going, middle-class humour which even now bears his mark." His creation of "the new humour" brought him attacks in Punch and elsewhere, "For 'new' humour meant only that Jerome had had the nerve to find his comic themes in middle-class life, and had been able to create sympathetic characters out of people who said things like 'Ain't you going to put the boots in?'" Connolly's biography is "competent and entertaining," though it fails "fully to define the complex psychological adjustment of the wretched child into the benign author." Beerbohm, Max. "Words of Consolation and of Caution to Mr. Jerome," Saturday Review, 83 (12 June 1897), 653-54. [Largely a rev. of Sketches in Lavender.] "The narrowness of his outlook, the vulgarity and fatuousness of his jokes, his bad grammar, are not things which excite my anger. I do not myself admire them much, but, such as they are, they are racy, peculiar and distinct. In his earlier books [JKJ] used these gifts with effect, quickly endearing himself to the great heart of the British Pub. In his latest book, 'Sketches in Lavender ,' he uses them still to a certain extent. . . . But, somehow, the old spirit seems fainter. There are signs of chastened endeavour. ... In fact, [JKJ] seems to be growing ashamed of his old manner, growing too genteel for his old public. . . . [JKJ's] recent plays have not, I believe, had long runs. [JKJ] seems to have thought that, therefore, vulgarity is not so popular as it once was. [JKJ] has always written on the low level, and what more natural than that he should wish to soar now (through the window of an empty boxoffice ) to a higher, rarer atmosphere in literature? [Relates story, "Blase Billy."] That such stuff is pitiable is quite the kindest thing to be said. I 64 Markgraf and Wiebe: JKJ Bibliography, Update II have small faith in the reformatory power of criticism, but I cannot help hoping that [JKJ] may abandon stories of high life. He cannot, for one thing, tell a story; his talent does but fit itself to a random sequence of jokes and anecdotes. Moreover ... he has not the slightest qualification for writing about our aristocracy. . . . Any one, capable of writing the story whose outline I have just given, is not likely to understand what I mean. If he be wise, however, [JKJ] will take my meaning on trust, and will abandon high life, as a literary motive, for evermore. No less will he refrain from repeating so fearful a performance as his 'City of the Sea,' a kind of Norse legend, written in the form of a prose-poem. [JKJ's] fancy does not lend itself to legends, nor his style to prose-poems. . . . The fact that his recent plays have not been triumphs does not argue that vulgarity has lost its market. [JKJ] fails as a playwright, simply because he cannot write good plays; because he lacks dramatic power, sense of contrast and construction. But I am sure that, if he will but use his talent as he used it in his early books and as he still uses it, to some extent, in these 'Sketches in Lavender,' he will always be popular. His talent is of a sordid, limited order, but it is real enough in its way, and it is, as I have said, distinct. . . . Having kindled his discarded pipe and cocked his bowler to its old angle of 45, let him grin, as of...