Read Online Temporary Kings by Anthony Powell - Free Book Online Page A

racquets, skating, skiing. If there is a
superfluity of Edgar Allan Poe brought up to date, there is also a touch of
Edwin Arlington Robinson.’
    ‘You outrun my
literary bounds.’
    ‘But you can at least
understand that Russell is at once intensely American, yet allergic to American
life. That, in itself, can be paralleled, though not quite in Russell’s terms.
To quote Adams again, he is not one of those Americans who can only assert or
deny. I did not use the comparison of the two poets recklessly. Russell, too,
hoped to be a poet. He was sufficiently self-critical to see that was not to
be. He also draws quite well. Almost always portraits of himself. We saw a lot
of each other when I was over there. He is a nice young man, cagey in certain
moods.’
    ‘You know he is
writing a book about X. Trapnel. That’s why he wants to meet Pamela Widmerpool.’
    ‘Trapnel is only a
name to me. One of my pupils used to rave about his books. If Russell does
that, he will do it well. He is industrious, in spite of his singularities,
perhaps because of them. Had he been an English undergraduate, his rooms would
have been equipped with black candles, skulls, the odour of incense. He likes
Death. That atmosphere is not the American tradition. The taste has told
against him, notwithstanding the significance of his name. There was also some
kind of a tragedy in his early college days. He was friendly with a girl who
committed suicide – at least she seems to have committed suicide. Perhaps it
was an accident. He was not in the smallest degree to blame.’
    ‘Why is his name
significant?’
    ‘He is descended – collaterally,
I understand – from what is known as a “Signer”, one Button Gwinnett, who set
his name to the Declaration of Independence. Both halves of the name are of
interest to persons like oneself, “Gwinnett”, of course, “Gwynedd”, meaning
North Wales – the Buttons, a South Wales family, probably
advenae
.
A small piece of topographical history neatly established by nomenclature.’
    ‘I don’t know how these
things are looked on in America.’
    ‘Like so much else,
the attitude is ambivalent. In general, anyway in the right circles, to be
descended from a Signer can be highly regarded, even if many such have passed
into obscurity. Some Americans will, of course, deny any interest whatever in
such trivial matters.’
    ‘Kind hearts are more
than Cabots?’
    ‘And simple faith
than Mormon blood. This is something of a paradox in that the transgression – crime
perhaps – of America has been to reject Classicism for Romanticism. The
national distaste for moderation – to which Henry Adams referred – inevitably
leads to such a choice. Russell himself is far from immune, though you might
not guess that from outward bearing. Profound Romanticism is bound in due
course to dilate towards its gothic extremities. In his particular case, family
history may have helped.’
    ‘It is often pointed
out that one form of Romanticism is to be self-consciously Classical, but what
you say accords with Gwinnett’s choice of Trapnel as a subject. Let’s hope he
treats Trapnel’s own Romanticism in a Classical manner.’
    ‘Naturally the terms
are hopelessly imprecise. That does not make them valueless. Baudelaire and
Swinburne have Classical statements to make – more than many people are aware
who regard them as pure Romantics – but their gothic side is equally
undeniable. Underneath Russell Gwinnett’s staid exterior I suspect traces of an
American Byron or Berlioz. I spoke of Poe, the preoccupation with Death. When
there was trouble about this girl, it was because he had broken into the place
where her body was. Some found it deeply touching… others… well…’
    ‘Were there a lot of
girls?’
    ‘Apparently none
after that. No one seems to know why. Again, some look on that with admiration,
others deem it unsatisfactory.’
    ‘As to Byron –