If you want to sell large numbers you must write like Conan Doyle or Miss Dell, or Mrs Barclay. Personally, if I were in your place I would prefer to write as you do write. But you cannot expect to please the great public at the same time.102
Richards understood that Firbank was incapable of writing popular fiction. Firbank’s next novel, Valmouth, to appear in a little under two years’ time, would confirm the author commercially as a rarely appreciated literary bloom. Richards must genuinely have considered that Firbank’s best course was to get used to this.
Firbank’s claims to literary significance were largely disregarded in his lifetime. He is unfortunate, though, not to have had the case subsequently made for his extraordinary innovations in dialogue and narrative compression, constituting a vital bridge between the fin de siècle and the modern age, between fin de siècle preoccupations and aesthetics and those of literary modernism. Consequently, his brilliance continues to be overshadowed by writers with more appealing personalities and those better at self-promotion. The dominance of cinema and broadcasting in today’s narratives has perhaps sharpened popular appetites for sincere, hackneyed or sentimental expressions of feeling: among the things Firbank conspicuously opted to do without.
Consumed in his brief life by Oscar Wilde’s legacy and that of other symbolists, aesthetes and decadents, yet single-handedly capable of stripping away the pretence and languor of their often moribund prose, Firbank has benefited neither from his identification with the fin de siècle nor from being viewed appropriately as among the supreme prose stylists of high modernism. He was gay, of course, which today might be thought a calling card for popularity. He could not have written as he did without his profound sense of sexual marginality. Yet Firbank waved no flags, produced no theses and would not, I suppose, have argued for normalizing homosexual desires. He celebrated perversity.
If he can hardly be said to have led a fortunate life, Firbank’s posthumous reputation has also suffered from various vicissitudes. Miriam Benkovitz’s 1969 biography was prone to absurd emphases, speculations and errors of fact. Firbank has been further obscured by his most ardent devotees, as in Brigid Brophy’s huge, sometimes scarcely intelligible monograph Prancing Novelist: A Defence of Fiction in the Form of a Critical Biography in Praise of Ronald Firbank (1973). Some of his biggest fans have been discreet if not secretive in their praise, while others – Waugh, Huxley, Powell – may have learnt or borrowed much, but conceded little.
History shows, however, that literary reputations may not be formed in a day or even in a century. Let your possession of this book herald a new beginning for the author who dared to countenance his own marginal literary reputation in the form of Vainglory’s Claud Harvester. Firbank’s oeuvre looks set to become readily available again, in editions that will do him justice, bought, consumed and cherished by people of taste and discernment. That can be celebrated.
Richard Canning, 2012
NOTES
In the notes below, the main archives of letters written by, to or about Firbank are abbreviated as follows:
Fales The Fales Collection, New York University Libraries
Hobson Collection of Anthony Hobson, Wiltshire. Where a page number is given, the letter is found in Ronald Firbank, Letters to His Mother 1920–1924, ed. and with an Introduction by Anthony Hobson (Verona: Stamperia Valdonega, 2001). Where none is given, the letter remains unpublished.
Sitwell Collection of Sir Reresby Sitwell, Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire
UCL Library, University College London
1. Quoted in Alan Ansen, The Table Talk of W. H. Auden, ed. Nicholas Jenkins (Princeton: Ontario Review Press, 1990), p. 54.
2. William Plomer, Electric Delights, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis (Boston: David Godine, 1978), p. 16.
3. Evelyn Waugh, Preface to Vile Bodies (London: Chapman & Hall, 1965), p. 7; quoted in Steven Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography of Secondary Materials, 1905–1995 (Normal, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 1996), p. 106.
4. Quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 92.
5. Quoted in Edmund Wilson, The Fifties, ed. Leon Edel (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986), p. 298.
6. Anthony Powell, Introduction to Ronald Firbank, The Complete Firbank (London: Picador, 1988), p. 10.
7. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (New York: Scribners, 1964), p. 27.
8. Firbank to his mother, Paris (June 1922) (Hobson, p. 94).
9. Quoted in Brigid Brophy, Prancing Novelist: A Defence of Fiction in the Form of a Critical Biography in Praise of Ronald Firbank (London: Macmillan, 1973), p. 166.
10. Leonard Woolf, ‘Butterflies’, Nation and Athenaeum 44 (14 January 1929), p. 495.
11. Ibid.
12. Virginia Woolf, Leave the Letters Till We’re Dead, ed. Nigel Nicolson with Joanne Trautmann (London: Hogarth Press, 1980), p. 526.
13. Ronald Firbank, Sorrow in Sunlight (1924), reprinted in his Three Novels, with an Introduction by Alan Hollinghurst (London: Penguin, 2000), p. 147. In his Introduction, Hollinghurst persuasively argues that the book is more properly identified as Sorrow in Sunlight, Firbank’s preferred title, rather than Prancing Nigger, as it was generally known at the time.
14. Ibid.
15. Quoted in Meryvn Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques (London: Duckworth, 1977), p. 82.
16. Quoted in Sjeng Scheijen, Diaghilev: A Life (London: Profile, 2009), p. 184.
17. Alan Hollinghurst, Introduction to Ronald Firbank, Three Novels, p. viii.
18. Stuart Rose to Firbank, New York, 3 October 1924 (Fales).
19. Quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 97.
20. David Paul, ‘Butterfly at Large’, The Times Literary Supplement, 28 April 1961, p. 259; quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 25.
21. Quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 80.
22. Alan Hollinghurst, Introduction to Firbank, Three Novels, p. xii.
23. Quoted in Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques, p. 108.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Virginia Woolf, ‘Modern Fiction’ (1919), in The Common Reader, Volume 1 (London: Vintage, 2003), p. 150.
27. Jocelyn Brooke, Ronald Firbank (London: Arthur Barker, 1951), p. 55.
28. Firbank to Stuart Rose, Rome, 17 May 1924 (Fales).
29. Brooke, Ronald Firbank, p. 57.
30. Joseph Bristow, Effeminate England: Homoerotic Writing After 1885 (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1995), pp. 103, 102.
31. Ibid., pp. 104, 113.
32. Alan Hollinghurst, Introduction to Ronald Firbank, The Early Firbank, ed. Steven Moore (London: Quartet, 1991), p. vii.
33. Firbank to Tony Landsberg, London, n.d. (Sitwell).
34. Ifan Kyrle Fletcher, quoted in Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques, p. 22.
35. Firbank to his mother, Bath, 1 January 1913 (Fales).
36. Firbank to Tony Landsberg, London, 1 March (1913) (Sitwell).
37. Nancy Cunard to Miriam Benkovitz, London, 28 October 1958 (Beinecke Library, Yale University).
38. Firbank to Tony Landsberg, ‘Hotel Voltaire’, n.p., n.d. (Sitwell).
39. Firbank to Tony Landsberg, Manchester, 17 August (1913?), and Norwich, n.d. (1913?) (Sitwell).
40. Augustus John, Chiaroscuro: Fragments of Autobiography (London: Jonathan Cape: 1952), p. 137.
41. Evan Morgan to Richard Buckle, Newport, 25 July 1940 (private collection).
42. Ibid.
43. Jean Cocteau, Paris Album 1900–1914, translated by Margaret Crosland (London: Comet, 1987), p. 117.
44. Tanagras are terracotta figurines produced in the settlement of Tanagra in Greece from the third century BC.
45. Firbank to his mother, Rome (16 July 1914) (Hobson).
46. Firbank to his mother, Paris, n.d. but postmarked 20 June 1914 (Hobson).
47. Firbank to his mother, Rome (1
4 July 1914) (Hobson).
48. Firbank to his mother, Edinburgh (1914) (Hobson, p. 4).
49. Quoted in Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques, p. 29.
50. Ibid., p. 156.
51. Ibid., p. 112.
52. Ibid., pp. 112–13.
53. Miriam J. Benkovitz, A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank, revised edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), p. 6.
54. Firbank to Grant Richards, London, 25 January (1915) (UCL); quoted in Benkovitz, A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank, pp. 6–7.
55. Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 29 January 1915 (copy in UCL).
56. Firbank to George Wiggins, London, 28 February 1915 (Fales).
57. Firbank to Grant Richards, London, 25 January (1915) (UCL); quoted in Benkovitz, A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank, pp. 6–7.
58. Quoted by Grant Richards in Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques, p. 113.
59. Ibid.
60. Firbank to Grant Richards, London, 31 March 1915 (UCL); quoted in Benkovitz, A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank, p. 7.
61. Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 4 May 1915 (copy in UCL).
62. The Times Literary Supplement, 22 April 1915, and the Observer, 4 July 1915 – both quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, pp. 3–4.
63. The Times Literary Supplement, 22 April 1915, p. 138; quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 4.
64. The Times Literary Supplement, 9 June 1905, p. 187.
65. Observer, 4 July 1915; quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 3.
66. Quoted in Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques, p. 68.
67. Ibid.
68. Firbank to Grant Richards, London, 29 April 1915 (UCL).
69. Firbank to Tony Landsberg, London, n.d. (Sitwell). The artist is Maurice Quentin de La Tour (1704–88), not to be confused with the seventeenth-century master Georges de La Tour (1593–1652).
70. Tatler, 28 April 1915, p. 108.
71. Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 6 December 1915 (copy in UCL).
72. Robbie Ross, quoted by Grant Richards in a letter to Firbank, London, 26 April 1915 (copy in UCL); Augustus John to Firbank, London, n.d. (Fales).
73. Benkovitz, A Bibliography of Ronald Firbank, p. 7.
74. Rollo St Clair Talboys to Firbank, Wellington, 3 May 1915; quoted in Miriam J. Benkovitz, Ronald Firbank: A Biography (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1969), p. 142.
75. Quoted by Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 10 May 1915 (copy in UCL).
76. Quoted in Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques, p. 31.
77. Quoted in ibid., p. 69.
78. Ibid.
79. Siegfried Sassoon, Siegfried’s Journey: 1916–20 (London: Faber & Faber, 1945), p. 136.
80. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford (November 1915) (UCL).
81. Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 7 January 1916 (copy in UCL).
82. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford, 12 January 1916 (UCL).
83. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford, 6 February 1916 (UCL).
84. Firbank to George Wiggins, Oxford, 28 May 1916 (Fales).
85. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford, 19 April 1916 (UCL). Malmaison is the château of Empress Josephine, noted for its pink colouring; ‘Sumerun’ is presumably a reference to the Sumer civilization, found in southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages, and especially renowned for its development of a form of written language, in cuneiform script, from around the thirtieth century BC; Léon Bakst (1866–1924), the Russian artist, was closely associated with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.
86. Quoted by Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 21 June 1916 (copy in UCL).
87. The Times Literary Supplement, 22 June 1916, p. 299; quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 4.
88. New Statesman 7 (22 July 1916), p. 378; quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 6.
89. Ingrid Hotz-Davies, ‘Microtextual Cruelties and the Subversive Imagination in Ronald Firbank’s Novels’, in Gill Davies, David Malcolm and John Simons (eds.), Critical Essays on Ronald Firbank, English Novelist 1886–1926 (Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004), p. 69.
90. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford, 25 August 1916 (UCL).
91. Quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 4.
92. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford, 29 April 1917 (UCL).
93. Firbank to Grant Richards, Torquay, 25 August 1916 (UCL).
94. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford, 29 April 1917 (UCL).
95. Firbank to Grant Richards, Oxford, 29 July 1917 (UCL).
96. Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 17 October 1917 (copy in UCL).
97. Grant Richards to Firbank’s mother, London, 22 August 1917 (copy in UCL).
98. Gerald Gould, New Statesman 10 (29 December 1917), pp. 310–11; quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 5.
99. Ibid.
100. The Times Literary Supplement, 1 November 1917, p. 7; quoted in Moore, Ronald Firbank: An Annotated Bibliography, p. 5.
101. Quoted in Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques, p. 80.
102. Grant Richards to Firbank, London, 10 December 1917 (copy in UCL). Ethel Dell (1881–1939), author of popular romantic fiction; Mrs Hubert Barclay (1872–?), author of the bestselling East of the Shadows (1913).
Chronology
1886 Born Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (‘Artie’) on 17 January to Thomas Firbank (1850–1910) and Harriette Jane Firbank (née Garrett; 1851–1924) in their home in Clarges Street, Piccadilly, London. Between 1886 and 1900 raised with elder brother Joseph (‘Joey’; 1884–1904), younger brother Hubert (‘Bertie’; 1887–1913) and sister Heather (1888–1951) at The Coopers, in Chislehurst, Kent.
1896 Sent away for schooling. Begins first novel, Lila.
1898 Composes first extant poem, ‘The Faeries Wood’.
1900 Moves to Uppingham School, but returns to The Coopers after three months, on grounds of ill-health. Begins short story ‘Mr White-Morgan the Diamond King’.
1901 Sent to Park Holm, a crammer in Buxton; starts collecting signed photographs of prominent figures, including actors, singers, musicians, writers, gentry and royalty.
1902 Thomas Firbank knighted, having served as MP for Hull East from 1885; he continues in Parliament until the 1906 general election. Ronald meets and is befriended by Rollo St Clair Talboys, a young tutor at Park Holm.
1902–3 Studies French near Tours. Travels around Spain with one ‘Mr Malden’, at the instigation of his parents. Writes first complete extant story, ‘True Love’. Continues French studies in the Basses Alpes, where he writes the stories ‘When Widows Love’ and ‘A Study in Temperament’. Also composes the poem ‘The Wind & the Roses’.
1904 After a few months at The Coopers, Firbank leaves for Paris, where he writes his first French piece, the prose poem ‘La Princesse aux Soleils’ (translated from his own English original, ‘The Princess of the Sunflowers’); the story ‘Far Away’ and the more substantial novella Odette d’Antrevernes; an attempt at drama, The Mauve Tower; and a second French prose poem, ‘Harmonie’, written for his mother at Christmas. Death of elder brother Joey; Firbank writes the story ‘The Legend of Saint Gabrielle’ shortly afterwards. Begins correspondence with Lord Alfred Douglas.
1905 Travels to Madrid to learn Spanish. In June, publishes his first book, Odette d’Antrevernes and A Study in Temperament. Author’s name given as ‘Arthur Firbank’. Writes ‘poem in prose’ ‘Souvenir d’Automne’ (in English) in Chislehurst.
1906 Prepares for Cambridge University entrance exam. Pens further juvenilia: the stories ‘The Singing Bird & the Moon’, ‘Her Dearest Friend’ and ‘The Wavering Disciple’. Goes up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Among those he befriends there are music don Professor Dent, Wilde’s son Vyvyan Holland, aspiring writers Forrest Reid and Rupert
Brooke, and Catholic convert, priest and polemical author Hugh Benson.
1907 Received into the Roman Catholic Church by Hugh Benson. Owing to acute financial difficulties, the Firbank family leaves The Coopers, moving to a series of addresses in inner London.
1907–8 Writes the stories ‘A Study in Opal’, ‘A Tragedy in Green’ and ‘Lady Appledore’s Mésalliance’, as well as the play A Disciple from the Country and a critical prose essay on Jean Gossart, ‘An Early Flemish Painter’, which is published in Lord Alfred Douglas’s journal, the Academy (28 September 1907).
1909 Goes down from Cambridge without completing his studies. Offers his services to the Papal Guard at the Vatican – unsuccessfully. Stays on in Rome.
1910 Death of Sir Thomas Firbank; his estate discovered to be worth far less than had been supposed. Firbank begins writing a novel, The Artificial Princess, which went by the working title of Salome, or ’Tis a Pity That She Would.
1911–12 Travels through Europe and Egypt before returning to London. Takes rooms in Piccadilly; frequently seen out socially, including at the Café Royal, and at performances given by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Visits Italy, retiring to Bath on his return. Abandons The Artificial Princess around this time.
1913 Death of younger brother Bertie. Firbank begins work on Vainglory.
1914 Often seen eating and drinking at the bohemian Eiffel Tower Restaurant in London, with a diverse social set, including Nancy Cunard, Augustus John, Osbert and Sacheverell Sitwell, Percy Wyndham Lewis, Duff Cooper, Diana Manners (later Cooper), Mark Gertler, Alvaro ‘Chile’ Guevara, Jacob Epstein, Michael Arlen, Frederick Delius – and a new intimate for whom Firbank nursed intense longings: Evan Morgan (later, the 2nd Viscount Tredegar). Tours France and Italy. Offers manuscript of Vainglory to Martin Secker, who rejects it.
1915 Publishes first novel, Vainglory, with Grant Richards (15 April), with a frontispiece by Félicien Rops. Author’s name for the first time given as ‘Ronald Firbank’. He sits for Augustus John, the subsequent portrait sketch published in the Tatler. Determines to pass the war out of London, settling first in Pangbourne, then in Oxford, where he works on the novel Inclinations.
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