Volume 1, Number 2 · June 1, 1963
An International Episode
By Marius Bewley
A Favorite Of The Gods
by Sybille Bedford
Simon and Schuster, $4.50
A Favourite of the Gods is Sybille Bedford's fifth book and second novel. For a decade now she has been producing volumes that call for exacting standards of critical judgment, and yet by those same standards the novels do not entirely come off. From the first the reviewers paid Miss Bedford the dubious compliment of being able to write like other people. One of them cited James, Meredith, Evelyn Waugh and Cyril Connolly. Meant as praise, the observation is chilling. How could anyone resemble a mixed package like that and still claim an importance? Miss Bedford is often too consciously literary in her technique, but at her best she doesn't imitate: she uses influences creatively. At such times she is most original and substantial in her achievement, as in her use of the Jamesian heroine as a model for Anna Howland in the present novel.
Review, 2230 words
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