From a By the Book interview in the New York Times headlined “Claire Tomalin’s Favorite Fictional Heroine? It ‘Must Be Natasha’ in ‘War and Peace'”:
“Joined of course by Emma, Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot, Marianne — well, that’s enough.,” says the renowned British biographer Claire Tomalin, whose latest book is “The Young H.G. Wells.” “We all enjoy heroines who don’t always behave themselves.”
What books are on your night stand?
Beside my bed this week is Anil Seth’s “Being You” — a book about consciousness, which he describes as the “continual process of prediction error minimization” that takes place as your brain makes predictions while your senses inform you of what is actually there in front of you.
He also tells us about the Japanese roboticist who builds “Geminoids” — robots as similar to human beings as possible, including one resembling himself, which delivered a 45-minute lecture to a large audience of students. It is a brilliant book, and far above my level — so I have to be content with enjoying the parts I can just about manage to understand.
Atul Gawande’s “Better” — a doctor writing about his work, with a special emphasis on the treatment of cystic fibrosis — is just a truly magnificent piece of descriptive writing….
Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).
Well, honestly I am as happy reading on the bus as anywhere else, although I gave up reading in the bath, which I used to do when my children were young — the bath protected me effectively. I like reading by the fire at home, or in the garden when it is warm. I always take plenty of books to read on holiday, and I enjoy reading in trains and on hotel balconies.
What’s your favorite book no one else has heard of?
A book I greatly admire is Julia Boyd’s “Travelers in the Third Reich,” published in 2017 — a beautifully written and brilliant book for which she did wide-ranging and meticulous research. The result is surprising and fascinating — and it could be better known.
Which writers — novelists, playwrights, critics, journalists, poets — working today do you admire most?
I admire Christopher Reid as a brilliant and engaging poet, and over the years I have watched his formidable wit and originality build an impressive oeuvre. And now some of his long poems are performed in the theater to great effect.
David Runciman is one of the sharpest and most sensible writers on politics in England now. My friend the historian Frances Harris has just died, leaving important historical books — one is a study of John Evelyn, the other great 17th-century diarist alongside Pepys.
You’ve written many biographies of canonical British authors. As a reader, do you favor any of their work more than the others?
If I favor one of my biographical subjects it should probably be Thomas Hardy, great and long-lived poet and novelist of English country life.
Your latest biography is about H. G. Wells’s early life and career. What Wells books would you recommend to a beginner?
I’d recommend Wells’s “The Time Machine” and “The War of the Worlds” — both long stories — and his novel “Tono-Bungay,” which is my favorite among his books. I also admire his pamphlet “This Misery of Boots.”…
Has a book ever brought you closer to another person, or come between you?
Reading aloud with my children was very important to all of us, I think, and brought us close. I learned poems with them, and my son learned French with me largely by us reading together in the first place — he is disabled and travels alone through France now very successfully.
What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?
I was very interested in Atul Gawande’s “Better,” from which I have learned a great deal about the practice of medicine in the U.S.A. — its excellence, and how expensive it is.
What moves you most in a work of literature?
Good writing moves the reader — finding that someone has been able to put words together in a way that is exact, involving, sometimes surprising, always informative.
Good writing moves me — I remember the wonderful shock of Alice Munro’s early stories, which shone out like a new dawn….
What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift?
The best book I ever received was the first: “The Tale of Tom Kitten,” by Beatrix Potter, given to me by the nurse who looked after me in the hospital when I was nearly 5. I think. It is a great book.
Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain?
My favorite heroine must be Natasha in “War and Peace” — joined of course by Emma, Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot, Marianne — well, that’s enough. We all enjoy heroines who don’t always behave themselves.
Among rogues I rather like Thomas Mann’s Felix Krull. Heathcliff, of course.
What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?
I read everything I could lay my hands on as a child (this was during World War II). I was reading Anna Sewell’s “Black Beauty” when war was declared and worried at once about the fate of horses. “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre.” I read “Sans Famille,” by Hector Malot, a great French novel about a child on his own, published in 1878. Poetry: Ronsard, Yeats, Tennyson, Shakespeare (my dear mother gave me a complete Shakespeare for my 11th birthday, with the poems as well as the plays — and I read and read it).
How have your reading tastes changed over time?
I don’t think my literary tastes have changed much over time. It is always a treat to find a good new book to read. I read history and also about current politics now.
What do you plan to read next?
My husband, Michael Frayn, is finishing a book and I hope to read the typescript of that next.
Speak Your Mind