Allan Massie
The Great Modernist Dinner
A Night at the Majestic
By Richard Davenport-Hines
Faber & Faber 384pp £14.99
On 18 May 1922, a rich Englishman named Sydney Schiff and his wife Violet (sister of Oscar Wilde’s friend Ada Leverson) gave a supper party at the Hotel Majestic in the Avenue Kléber. It was in honour of Diaghilev and his Ballet Russe, which that evening had performed a new ballet with music by Stravinsky. Among the other guests were Picasso, Joyce and Proust; and it is with some reason that Richard Davenport-Hines calls it ‘the Great Modernist Dinner’.
Joyce and Proust both arrived late, Joyce rather drunk. It was the only occasion they met. Accounts of their conversation vary, but all agree it was insipid. Joyce had just published Ulysses. Proust – somewhat more celebrated, to Joyce’s irritation – had only six months to live and would be
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm