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112Reviews first is paranoia, which, whUe an expression of helplessness against an incomprehensible conspiracy, is still a form of perception that gives meaning to a meaningless world and that draws isolated people into a community. The second is metaphor, which conveys meaning in a language that has become, on the one hand, synthetic, end, on the other, a closed system conveying information only about itself. For metaphor conveys feelings and forms of consciousness not as information but as nonetheless intelligible forms. And Pynchon conveys the meaning of modern reality in metaphors like "the grim phoenix," Kekule's Serpent, and in the very form of his novel. I have, of course, simplified Plater's argument, which deals with all of Pynchon's fiction and every major character methodically in each section, and considers a wide range of complex philosophical, scientific, and political thought. Indeed, I have not only simplified but changed its emphasis, for Kekule's dream, though continually mentioned, is not as central to Plater's argument as it is to what I learned from it. But The Grim Phoenix is a difficult book not just because the subject matter is difficult but because Plater is hard to read. As opposed to Joseph Slade's Thomas Pynchon, it assumes that the reader has a firm grasp of Pynchon and a substantial acquaintance with his references. But, although we may not need another introduction to Pynchon (and this is not Slade's only virtue), I doubt if many readers are able to hold as much of Pynchon in their minds as they can of other such difficult writers as Joyce and Faulkner. Moreover, whUe Plater is obviously in control of an immense amount of knowledge, he does not have the control to convey it incisively ; therefore, it takes a great deal of work for the reader to discover the value of his insights. Nor does Plater capture the spirit of Pynchon's style, although he understands it. Finally, his strategy of considering all of Pynchon's fiction under each heading sacrifices the power and complexity of each work and creates an oppressive redundancy. Over and over, Pynchon's fiction becomes enclosed in a new critical system, enclosed, but not entrapped or consumed. For with patience and energy, WUliam Plater's Grim Phoenix yields Pynchon back with power and pertinence. Wheaton CollegeRichard Pearce Weiland, Dennis. Mark Twain in England. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press, 1978. 267 pp. Cloth: $15.00. Surprisingly little reliable information has been available concerning the publication and sales of Mark Twain's books in Britain. Biographers have had to reconstruct the story, insofar as they have done so at all, from disparate sources of evidence which, severally end together, heve proved less then adequate to the job. Incomplete collections of royalty statements, rather fragmentary correspondence, published reminiscences by Twain's acquaintances in England, book reviews, and the bibliographical indications of the books themselves comprise most of the pertinent evidence, and it would almost seem that the more sources of information there are, the more contradictory are the conclusions to which they point. In bringing these patchwork evidences together, adding significant new information, and interpreting it all in a continuous bio-bibliographical narrative, Dennis WeUand has settled a few important questions and has unsettled many more by introducing whoUy new contradictions. Studies in American Fiction113 Mark Twain in England supplements, with little or no redundancy, Howard Baetzhold 's exemplary study of "the British connection" in Mark Twain and John Bull by examining the author's relationships with his various English publishers, first and briefly, with John Camden Hotten end Routledge in the early chapters, and thereafter with Chatto & Windus, authorized publishers of Tom Sawyer (1876) and all the subsequent works. The new information that WeUand brings to the subject consists for the most part of a significant number of previously unpublished letters preserved along with the firm's accounts in the Chatte & Windus files. Using these records, WeUand is able to detail the passage to England of each of Twain's books, to observe the problems of publication es they arose in those days before international copyright, and to comment on the satisfaction or dismay that Twain or Andrew Chatto...

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