November 9, 2004

Last line

Even the mature historian's privilege of setting forth conversations of which he knows only the gist is one that I have availed myself of hardly at all.

Posted by sheila
Comments

Clue:

There's a reason why I put this particular last line in this spot in the list (below the one above it).

There's a method to my madness, an internal logic.

Posted by: red at November 9, 2004 6:19 PM

My first thought was to say Barbara Tuchman, and I guess it would have to be "A Distant Mirror," but I can't picture her using the masculine pronoun so off-handedly; and that book ends with her description of the destruction of the citadel, anyway.

Posted by: Linus at November 9, 2004 6:36 PM

No. This book was a massive phenomenon - a bestseller, a mini-series, a blah blah blah, and a hoo-hoo-hoo. It was everywhere for a couple of years.

Posted by: red at November 9, 2004 6:44 PM

Wouldn't be Galsworthy, would it?

Posted by: Adrianne Truett at November 9, 2004 6:49 PM

Adrianne:

Nope ... The author of this particular novel was mostly known for his poetry.

Posted by: red at November 9, 2004 8:05 PM

(Unless I'm completely nuts and have my facts wrong ... but I don't think so.)

Posted by: red at November 9, 2004 8:06 PM

Up until that last hint I was convinced this was Herman Wouk, _The Winds of War_.

After that last hint, I now say that this is Robert Graves _I, Claudius_.

Heh, got two guesses into one comment.

Posted by: Ted K at November 9, 2004 8:57 PM

Ted K. I think you may be right about I, Claudius.

Posted by: mina3727 at November 10, 2004 8:17 AM

Yes - It's I Claudius.

Wasn't he mainly a poet?

Posted by: red at November 10, 2004 10:29 AM

Robert Graves?

Yes - one of the World War One poets, among other things.

Posted by: Ted K at November 10, 2004 1:40 PM