Invisible Author: Last Essays

by Christine Brooke-Rose

A blend of memoir and narrative, Invisible Author consists of six lectures by Christine Brooke-Rose, in which she discusses her own work, thus breaking the taboo that authors should not write about their writings, though constantly invited to talk about them. The collection ends with a splendidly summarizing interview by Lorna Sage. The book's main concern is the narrative sentence, expressing the author's "authority." Traditionally it dominated, it was in the past tense, and impersonal, like that of the historian, as opposed to speech-forms, which have a different grammar. Brooke-Rose discovers and analyzes the paradoxical use of the present tense (which belongs to speech-forms), but without its concomitant first person, to create an impersonal yet closely simultaneous narrative sentence.

Genres: Essays, British Literature

206 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2002

About the author

Christine Frances Evelyn Brooke-Rose was a British writer and literary critic, known principally for her later, experimental novels. Born in Geneva and educated at Somerville College, Oxford and University College, London, she taught at the University of Paris, Vincennes, from 1968 to 1988 and lived for many years in the south of France.

She was married three times: to Rodney Bax, whom she met at Bletchley Park; to the poet Jerzy Pietrkiewicz; and briefly to Claude Brooke. She shared the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction for Such (1966).

She was also known as a translator from French, in particular of works by Robbe-Grillet.

NYT obituary.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this collection of only expensively available essays, the septuagenarian puzzle-maker reveals the constraints and complex grammatical, linguistic and semantic tricks at work in her groundbreaking novels. A (not entirely helpful) close reading of the most unreadababble of her works, the lit-theory-saturated Thru, provides a rare glimpse into how her mind works, and the quite absurdly intellectually ambitious ploys at play. The other pieces in here delve into the technical aspects of her work with reference to her influences: Robbe-Grillet, Julia Kristeva, Derrida, Lacan, Barthes and the whole crew. Illuminating info on her absent place in the pantheon of Pomo Greats is also provided, the reasons sadly gender-due, but also her own resistance to labels (she was invited into the Oulipo but refused, for example). In the final essay, Brooke-Rose rhapsodises on House of Leaves, a novel whose narrative technique she admired for its similar “scientific” approach, although rightly concludes Zorro is not the future of fiction. A striking and surprisingly lucid collection for all you rich aesthetes with money to blow.

[David]

An excellent collection of mental pushups and calisthenics on the subject of telling stories, in which 'the old lady' gets one final chance to explain and defend her career. Some great insights, especially into Thru and Textermination (as it happens, my favourites of her work).

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

I liked this a whole lot more than Stories, Theories, and Things

[-end- · Rating 4 out of 5]

A peak into Christine Brooke-Rose's techniques & methods, from the author herself. Brooke-Rose is a Brooke-Rose is a Brooke-Rose is a Brooke-Rose.