(H/B) V.2 THE JOURNALS OF JOHN FOWLES

Παρουσίαση

A diary is perhaps the most attempted of all literary genres. Most of us have kept one at one time or another, even if we have no further ambition to write. This universal quality perhaps accounts for why the genre defies easy categorization - there can be no common set of rules that all diary-keepers observe. To appreciate a diary's significance, it is worth reflecting a little on its illusory, deceptive nature, even if it is written with the unsparing honesty that John Fowles has shown in both this published volume and the previous one. A diary is commonly regarded as a place for candour, but the haphazard, shifting nature of diary-writing must none the less call for countless provisos and qualifications.
To take the most basic definition, a diary is recorded experience. But what of the gaps when experience goes unrecorded? Do they mean that passing time has offered nothing notable to record or, on the contrary, has been so full of experience as to deny the leisure to record? It is impossible to know for certain whether such gaps indicate a dull time or an exciting time.
Then a diary's purpose can be as varied as the number of people who keep one. It can be little more than a list of events, providing a basic orientation in the world and intended for no eyes other than those of the writer; equally, with a possible view to future discovery or publication, it can be a vehicle for self-justification or self-promotion - able as much to hide the truth as to reveal it. [...] (From the publisher)