Facts and fictions
An alternative title for this blog would be ‘Dear Mr Handel’, as my reading over the last week has been preoccupied with a book about Handel letters, or perhaps that should read a book about facts and fictions. And indeed it is more complex still, as the letters in question are TO this 18thC composer, rather than BY him.
The book in question, cover shown here, is by Sandra Dolby. It is a novel, although at its end it mixes this uncomplicated designation by implying that it has been fictionalised only because of legal restrictions on publishing the actual letters, a clever ploy which troubles the mind of the reader thereafter. Some previously unknown letters to Handel turn up, two protagonists meet a letter possessor, a seminar group is formed, this meets on different occasions to discuss various of the letters in question, which are provided in full along with the transcribed conversation that ensued. Key issues for anyone working on or reading letters are raised and discussed interestingly. Some of the prose is a bit clunky at the start, but once the seminar is meeting the development of thinking and talking by its members becomes engrossing. Interestingly, the contents of the book are concerned more with the issues arising, and less so with the actual letters. These are provided and alluded to, but their details are rarely discussed in any detail. But even so, this is a very good read, based on a very interesting idea, and it raises foursquare the emergent complexities of the fact and fiction relationship.
Last updated: 7 April 2023
