A Certain Measure

FOR a 1938 edition of her novels, Ellen Glasgow wrote a series of prefaces which have now been gathered into a book. Miss Glasgow discusses her characters and how her novels took form. Like Henry James, she considers the novel primarily a work of art, and she is prodigal in sharing the many things she has learned about writing. She also has pungent and memorable things to say, from profound observations about her craft to such delectable sallies as; “The capacity to pine for what is not is a privilege, or an infirmity, that is independent of sex. If man has dreamed of Helen and embraced Penelope, woman, condemned to a more prosaic lot, has sighed for fleet-footed Achilles while she was embraced by Odysseus.” The book is a valuable record for writers. To her many readers, these essays will shed new light on her work.