Percy Lubbock
Encyclopedia
Percy Lubbock, CBE
(4 June 1879 - 1 August 1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer.
in 1922. He was brought up at Emmetts near Ide Hill
in Kent. He was educated at Eton College
and King's College, Cambridge
.
He became an émigré, and lived in Gli Scafari on the Gulf of Spezia. Towards the end of his life he went blind. Remarkably well-placed socially, his intellectual connections included his Cambridge contemporaryE. M. Forster
, , Edith Wharton
(a member of her Inner Circle from about 1906), Howard Sturgis
and Bernard Berenson
. Other Cambridge friends included the singer Clive Carey
.
. His 1921 book The Craft of Fiction ('the official textbook of the Modernist aesthetics of indirection') became a straw man
for writers including Forster, Virginia Woolf
and Graham Greene
, who disagreed with his rather formalist view of the novel. Wayne Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction considers that Lubbock's take on the craft of Henry James was in fact schematizing and formal, if systematic, with a flattening effect.
. Sybil was daughter of the Irish peer Hamilton John Agmondesham Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart, and a widow after the 1910 young death of her first husband William Bayard Cutting, from tuberculosis
. Her second husband had been Geoffrey Scott, another of the Berenson circle. Lubbock's terminal coldness with Edith Wharton, from 1933, was occasioned by some unexplained factor concerning this marriage.
in James's later life, and became a follower in literary terms, and his editor after his death. Later scholars have questioned editorial decisions he made in publishing the James letters in 192, at a time when many of those concerned were still alive. Mark Schorer
, in his introduction to a reprint of Lubbock's The Craft of Fiction, described him as "more Jamesian than James".
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(4 June 1879 - 1 August 1965) was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer.
Life
Percy Lubbock was the son of the merchant banker Frederic Lubbock and his wife Catherine, daughter of John Gurney of Earlham Hall, Norfolk. Earlham, his memoir of childhood summer holidays spent at his maternal grandfather's home was to win him the James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
in 1922. He was brought up at Emmetts near Ide Hill
Ide Hill
Ide Hill is a village within the civil parish of Sundridge with Ide Hill, in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It stands on one of the highest points of the sandstone ridge about five miles south-west of Sevenoaks. Its name first appears on record in 1250 as Edythehelle. It is an eponymic...
in Kent. He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
.
He became an émigré, and lived in Gli Scafari on the Gulf of Spezia. Towards the end of his life he went blind. Remarkably well-placed socially, his intellectual connections included his Cambridge contemporaryE. M. Forster
E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society...
, , Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
(a member of her Inner Circle from about 1906), Howard Sturgis
Howard Sturgis
-Biography:Born into an affluent New England family in London, he attended Eton and Cambridge and was friends with Henry James and Edith Wharton. After the death of his parents, he moved into a country house with his lover William Haynes-Smith...
and Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson
Bernard Berenson was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. He was a major figure in pioneering art attribution and therefore establishing the market for paintings by the "Old Masters".-Personal life:...
. Other Cambridge friends included the singer Clive Carey
Clive Carey
Francis Clive Savill Carey CBE , known as Clive Carey, was a British baritone, singing teacher, composer, opera producer and folk song collector.-Biography:Clive Carey was born at Sible Hedingham, Essex in 1883...
.
Writing
He reviewed, anonymously in the columns of the Times Literary Supplement, significant modern novels including Forster's Howards EndHowards End
Howards End is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, which tells a story of class struggle in turn-of-the-century England. The main theme is the difficulties, troubles, and also the benefits of relationships between members of different social classes...
. His 1921 book The Craft of Fiction ('the official textbook of the Modernist aesthetics of indirection') became a straw man
Straw man
A straw man is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position, twisting his words or by means of [false] assumptions...
for writers including Forster, Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
and Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, who disagreed with his rather formalist view of the novel. Wayne Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction considers that Lubbock's take on the craft of Henry James was in fact schematizing and formal, if systematic, with a flattening effect.
Marriage
He married in 1926 Sybil Scott, née Lady Sybil Marjorie Cuffe, making him stepfather to the writer Iris OrigoIris Origo
Dame Iris Margaret Origo, Marchesa of Val d'Orcia, DBE , née Cutting, was an Anglo-Irish writer, who devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce, near Montepulciano, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s.-Origins and upbringing:Origo was the daughter of...
. Sybil was daughter of the Irish peer Hamilton John Agmondesham Cuffe, 5th Earl of Desart, and a widow after the 1910 young death of her first husband William Bayard Cutting, from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Her second husband had been Geoffrey Scott, another of the Berenson circle. Lubbock's terminal coldness with Edith Wharton, from 1933, was occasioned by some unexplained factor concerning this marriage.
Henry James
He was a good friend of Henry JamesHenry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
in James's later life, and became a follower in literary terms, and his editor after his death. Later scholars have questioned editorial decisions he made in publishing the James letters in 192, at a time when many of those concerned were still alive. Mark Schorer
Mark Schorer
Mark Schorer was an American writer, critic, and scholar born in Sauk City, Wisconsin.-Biography:Schorer earned an MA at Harvard and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1936...
, in his introduction to a reprint of Lubbock's The Craft of Fiction, described him as "more Jamesian than James".
Works
- Elizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett BrowningElizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
in Her Letters (1906) - Samuel Pepys (1909)
- A Book of English Prose, Part II (1913)
- The Letters of Henry James (1920) editor, two volumes
- George Calderon - a Sketch from Memory (1921)
- Earlham (1921) memoirs of Earlham Hall
- The Craft of Fiction (1921)
- Roman Pictures (1923)
- The Region Cloud (1925)
- The Diary of Arthur Christopher Benson (1927)
- Mary Cholmondeley: A Sketch from Memory (1928)
- Shades of Eton (1929) memoirs
- Portrait Of Edith WhartonEdith WhartonEdith Wharton , was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer.- Early life and marriage:...
(1947) - Percy Lubbock Reader (1957) editor Marjory Gane Harkness