Dictation: A Quartet

by Cynthia Ozick

Ozick’s latest work of fiction brings together four long stories, including the novella-length "Dictation," that showcase this incomparable writer’s sly humor and piercing insight into the human heart. Each starts in the comic mode, with heroes who suffer from willful self-deceit. From self-deception, these not-so-innocents proceed to deceive others, who don’t take it lightly. Revenge is the consequence—and for the reader, a delicious if dark recognition of emotional truth. The glorious novella "Dictation" imagines a fateful meeting between the secretaries to Henry James and Joseph Conrad at the peak of those authors’ fame. Timid Miss Hallowes, who types for Conrad, comes under the influence of James’s Miss Bosanquet, high-spirited, flirtatious, and scheming. In a masterstroke of genius, Ozick hatches a plot between them to insert themselves into posterity. Ozick is at her most devious, delightful best in these four works, illuminating the ease with which comedy can glide into calamity.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literature, Literary Fiction, Short Story Collection

129 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 18, 2008

About the author

Recipient of the first Rea Award for the Short Story (in 1976; other winners Rea honorees include Lorrie Moore, John Updike, Alice Munro), an American Academy of Arts and Letters Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award, and the PEN/Malamud award in 2008.

Upon publication of her 1983 The Shawl, Edmund White wrote in the New York Times, "Miss Ozick strikes me as the best American writer to have emerged in recent years...Judaism has given to her what Catholicism gave to Flannery O'Connor."

Reviews

[Kansas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A raiz de estar leyendo La mecanógrafa de Henry James, de Michiel Heyns e investigando, me enteré de que este cuento de Cynthia Ozick, estaba directamente relacionado con la novela dado que aquí, al igual que en la novela de Heyns, volvían a aparecer Henry James y su mecanógrafa Theodora Bosanquet, pero además Joseph Conrad y la suya, Lilian Hallowes. Ambas jóvenes se conocen casi por casualidad en 1910 y a raíz de este momento se hacen amigas; las dos adoraban a sus jefes/maestros y ambas eran profundas conocedoras de su obra.

El cuento es genial por como explora las relaciones humanas, el espiritu artistico, los egos y celos y lo hace con humor y un profundo conocimiento de la obra de James y Conrad. La conspiración de las dos mecanógrafas (que eran vistas solo como meros instrumentos, meros alargamientos de la máquina de escribir) para dejar su propio sello personal en la obra de ambos autores resulta una delicia.

Este cuento se puede encontrar en Cuentos reunidos.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dictation is a collection of four longish short stories. While the last three are interesting and well-written, the first and title story “Dictation” is the most fun of the bunch. It is the story of the meetings of Henry James and Joseph Conrad, followed by the meetings of their secretaries, Theodora Bosanquet and Lilian Hallowes. Ozick’s career has been deeply influenced by Henry James; her first novel, Trust, was her attempt to write as James might, and her last, Foreign Bodies, is an interesting inversion of James’ The Ambassadors which also revels in creamy Jamesian prose. Yet here in “Dictation,” Ozick has her fun at both writers’ expense: “[Conrad] and James regularly exchanged fresh volumes as soon as they were out; each acknowledged the other as an artist possessed—though in private each man harbored his reservation and his doubt. James thought Conrad a thicket of unrestrained profusion. Conrad saw James as heartless alabaster” (8). Ouch.

The two secretaries meet at Lamb House, James’ English country home. Miss Bosanquet is the livelier of the two and pursues Miss Fellowes, trying to convince her in any way she can that the two of them are the most important people to James and Conrad. And she has a plan on how they will reveal their importance to these two great men to all the world. Let me not spoil the plot, but this little story is engrossing and will leave you smiling. Enjoy.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dictation is a collection of character studies as short stories. Cynthia Ozick falls far from practicing her 'technique'. Every character is fully realized and very human. The style of writing for each story breathe life into the characters and are all completely different. One is even completely Victorian English. The other stories are typically New York, but with very different voices. Thanks to Ms. Ozick for the reading pleasure.

[Nathan Oates · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few writers alive who can approach Ozick's deft, ironic, elegant style. These stories are funny and delightful. The book is slim, but contains more good writing than shelves and shelves of other books.

[Courtney Ferriter · Rating 4 out of 5]

** 4.5 stars **

Really great collection of four Cynthia Ozick stories, all of which concern people who delude and deceive themselves and others. "Dictation" was my favorite (about a plot hatched between the secretaries of Henry James and Joseph Conrad), followed closely by "What Happened to the Baby?", which focuses on the development of a universal language rivaling Esperanto called GNU. "Actors" was also quite good (who doesn't love a Jewish King Lear?). I didn't like "At Fumicaro" as much as the other three, but still a strong collection overall. Definitely recommend if you like short stories and appreciate themes centering on language and self-deception.

[Sally Linford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ran into this title by clicking through on my "Word of the Day" email that I get from Dictionary.com. I think it was the word "amanuensis," that was quoted from this book. The quote was compelling enough that I ordered the book from my library.

It's very interesting so far: it tells the story of the secretaries (dictation-takers) of Henry James and Joseph Conrad as the two writers meet together. Story begins in 1901. The writing is very subtle: "Awed and self-conscious, Conrad could scarcely lick away the grains of crumpet lingering on his lower lip."

It's a short book. I'll let you know how it goes when I'm finished.

UPDATE: Wow, this is blow-your-mind amazing writing. Every sentence! More later . . .

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely quartet of short stories by a talented author. The first story is the namesake of the book, and considered the strongest. I guess I agree with that, even though I felt more than a little irritation with the characters and the pacing. The second story, about the aging actor who thinks he has made the big time at last was finely done and very painful at the end. The third story, about the religious scholar who goes to a conference in Italy and ends up marrying his pregnant teenage chamber maid, just tickled me all the way through. But I confess I did not really understand the final story. I liked it; just didn't understand it. I will go back and try it again sometime. I suspect it's worth it.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cleverness, cruelty, creepiness, cunning... The four stories in this "quartet" share a certain mood of literate tension. The protaganists display a stunning lack of agency and are uneasily prodded into action by various antagonistic characters. In "Dictation" a strong willed woman prevails upon a weaker one in an imaginative tale about Henry James and Joseph Conrad. A snippet: "... she wore her hair in a softly sculpted chignon (a chignon as unlike Lilian's unreliable falling-apart bun as a croissant is different from a dumpling), so that in profile she had the look of a dreaming Aphrodite." p41. The other three stories are filled with desperation and aimlessness.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four novella length separate pieces. The signature piece features the meeting of Henry James' and Joseph Conrad's secretaries and some secretary-induced infusion of each man's work into the other's. Can't remember the second story. In the third a young man marries his Italian chambermaid for obscure reasons. The last involves a young woman's elderly second cousin who harbors a secret about his dead child. Beautiful prose --- little plot --- probably some important message in each about the human condition but I'd be grateful if someone would enlighten me about it.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I either love Ozick or can't read her. This was a "love" match, particularly the first story, which concerns a fictional meeting between the type-writers (as in real women who typed their texts) of Henry James and Joseph Conrad. The last story, What Happened to the Baby?, is excellent as well. The two in between aren't bad. I definitely recommend it. The Puttermesser Papers is still my favorite, but this is a worthy addition.

[J B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dictation: *****
Actors: ****
Story #3: *
What happened to the baby?: **1/2

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 separate stories, united under this title and perhaps the theme of hubris and revenge. “ Lie, illusion, deception - was that the universal language we all speak?” It’s hard to choose sympathies though because the characters sabotage themselves. In Dictation, my favorite, Ozick fictionalizes the female secretaries of Henry James and Jospeh Conrad conspiring to switch a small portion of text between the two writers into their work undetected, but thereby living on into posterity. Theodora Bosanquet is the mastermind, convincing her twin amanuensis’ Lillian Hallowes to take on the ruse. “ why must we be confined by rules when all the world’s joy runs past them?’” Story 2, Actors is about Matt Sorely, a lazy, egotistical character actor who is convinced to take on the role of King Lear in a Yiddish re-make, thereby unmaking his waning career. In Story 3, At Fumicaro, Frank Castle gathers with other pious religion reporters and priests at an Italian villa during the rise of Mussolini. He behaves less-than-piously with the chambermaid, Viviana, who is already pregnant, imagining himself as her savior, but he gets only doubt and bitterness as his ‘thanks’. “Show me a convert and I’ll show you a fellow out to get even with someone.” Finally, What Happened to the Baby features the narrator Phyllis recounting her NYC childhood in which her mother strongly supported her unusual cousin Simon ( ‘Uncle’ to Phyllis) as he strives to create a universal language, GNU trying to compete and overtake Esperanto. Only in her young adulthood,after her parents retire to AZ that she learns the truth of Simon’s obsession and chicanery. The range of these different stories and the depth of their detailed creation reveals Ozick’s extensive talent. The characters are so well developed in only about 30 pages, that they seem to have a life of their own.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-done collection of longish short stories. The standout is the first story Dictation. It concerns two very different women who transcribe/type the stories of Henry James and Joesph Conrad. A first-rate story filled with imagination.
Ozick sets two other stories in New York City and she captures the look and feel of the city and its residents perfectly. I have read a lot of Ozick and she never disappoints.
a

[Erin Bottger (Bouma) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Ozick collection of four longish short stories is original and creative. She employs interesting characters in interesting situations to spin narratives of wit and wickedness. Her writing style is very readable.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of four longish (about 50 pages) stories. Interesting and complex, but I think I must have missed the point for the most part. I enjoyed reading them, but other than the 1st story, which provides the title, they didn't come to a satisfying conclusion for me.

[Robert Weiss, · Rating 3 out of 5]

mostly over my head…

Or simply incomprehensible. Either way three of the stories are utterly bewildering, and only the humor of the fourth kept me from downgrading the collection further. Maybe the author is a genius. Maybe not. Read this collection and decide for yourself.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't find much to like about any of the characters in these long (not short) stories with no apparent connection. Not recommended.

[MilesTeller Shirtless · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dictation is rlly good and nerdy, the rest were eh but still enjoyable and surprising. Gonna learn Esperanto

[Marne Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the best of Ozick’s books that I’ve read so far. These are four solid, old-fashioned short stories, and they all have that Ozick twist of the knife at the end.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four amusing novellas from one of our better writers that don’t reach the level of her best work. They seem more clever exercises, expertly turned, like extended jazz riffs in a live performance on cute themes that don’t warrant a studio session. The first is about the typists for Henry James and Joseph Conrad getting together and for different reasons conspiring to transpose bits of each of the writers prose into the soon to be published novel of the other. So a bit of Conrad snuck into James in turn for some James getting into Conrad. It’s a shy immortality the ladies seek since only they could pull off this lark. I had a medieval history class once where the professor told us that Dark Age monks tasked with copying documents and the works of the Church Fathers would sometimes put in their own comments, like one-way electronic chats to the future, that were sometimes relevant and sometimes not to what they were copying. He said stumbling on those was one of the hidden pleasures of his research. Ozick seems to be applying that idea to make her plot but it’s a modest pleasure.

The second is about a veteran but increasingly not-working New York actor who despite himself gets the lead in a stage production of a Lear-like work set in the Yiddish theater of early 20th Century. The third is about a middle-aged religious journalist who gets involved with an Italian chambermaid at a conference. The fourth is about a young woman whose mother supports her brother’s bizarre pursuit of a replacement universal language to Esperanto. It’s an extended fraud but it’s family. The mother believes in her brother; the daughter does not but can’t seem to disengage. All four of the stories have twists in them. All four involve passions of a sort, however buttoned down it is among the Victorian secretaries. All four involve deceptions that include deceivers among the deceived. Less than her best Ozick is still worth a read but you do come away feeling more should have been done with her skill and these ideas.

[Andrew Bertaina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is divided up into four lengthy short stories. The stories, like any collection, vary in their degrees of interest and execution. The first story, "Dictation," seems already to have been sunk by the existence of Colm Toibin's, "The Master." That particular book about Henry James is probably as good as someone is going to do writing about the Master, and so this story trails along in its wake, a half-formed thing.

The second story, "Actors" reads a bit too much like a New Yorker shorty story. It's about a failing actor's one last chance in a ridiculous play. It lacks a bit of the verve or panache or whatever you want to call it that makes a short story start to transcend the limits of the genre.

The latter two stories in the collection, "At Fumicaro" and "What Happened to the Baby" are far more successful, the characters stranger, the plot twists, presently surprising, such that the conclusion of each story brings one into the mind of reading a very pleasurable short story. They approach the very good side of the form. Anyhow, though no one would do it, I'd skip the first and just read the latter two as an exercise in appreciating good realist story telling.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

“His cheeks were a waterfall of rubbery creases” (70).
“…the silver thumb ring reddening in the light of the Exit sign whenever he glided past it” (77).
“Who would not choose an ocean, with its heaven-tugged tides, over a single drop?” (95).
“The wine was the color of light, immaculately clear, and warm, and wonderfully sour. He had never before rejoiced in such a depth of sourness—after you swallowed some and contemplated it, you entered the second chamber of the sourness, and here it was suddenly applelike. Their mouths burst into orchards” (108).
“ ‘Any friend of my niece Phyllis I intend to like’” (146).

***2nd reading:
"...and she wore her hair in a softly sculpted chignon (a chignon as unlike Lilian's unreliable falling-apart bun as a croissant is different from a dumpling)..." (41).
"Like twined with unlike is beauty's shock. And beauty, as Theodora knows, is eternal" (43).
"'In the meantime I am bursting with various damnations--" (48).
"...or evanescent godlet" (121).

[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been stuck in short story land lately. Ozick pretty much left me whelmed. I enjoyed reading each story in the moment of reading it, but none of them particularly resonated with me as being incredibly clever or weird or awesome. I didn't think about them after I finished reading them, even the one about the actor. I really wanted the stories to be great because her book jacket photo is the happiest kookiest author photo ever. It makes me want to have her over for tea and talk about preposterous things.

I was listening to an interview the other day about short story authors and how they really have the excuse to take so many risks. It's true, it's a short story. If a reader hates it or hates the characters or the plot or the location, they can just read the next one. I'd like to see more short story authors take more risks. It definitely felt like Ozick was playing it safe with these.

[El · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading The Puttermesser Papers I have been looking forward to reading something more by Cynthia Ozick; so when I saw this short story collection of four long stories I was eager to get to it. While I was not wholly disappointed, I also did not finish the book with a complete sense of satisfaction.

All four of the stories left me mostly wanting more. Sometimes this is a sign of a great story, so good I just want more, I don't want it to end. That wasn't quite the case with Ozick's stories here - I just wanted there to be more, something was missing throughout.

Wasn't a complete waste of time - Ozick is a wonderful writer and creates space and environment like few other contermporary writers I have read. But as far as what I expected after reading first The Puttermesser Papers I expected something else from these stories.

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps I've lost my taste for self-conscious literature or perhaps I never recognized this characteristic in the "upscale" literature that I have liked best. Whichever the case, I did NOT like this book. I admire the craftsman's touch here--Ozick puts together words beautifully--but I did not like the characters and I did not find the stories edifying or meaningful. I felt like the stories all tried too hard to be something bigger than they were. And... well, I just personally dislike this particular "realistic" style of writing--full of plenty of ugly details. I just don't enjoy reading florid descriptions of vomit and the like.

[Deb Oestreicher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long loved Cynthia Ozick's writing--there are few writers that offer such pure pleasure from their sentences. But my response to this collection of four long stories is split: I adored the first story ("Dictation," about a hypothetical encounter between the typewriter/secretaries of Henry James and Joseph Conrad and their bid for an immortality of their own), admired the second ("Actors," about a "difficult" actor who gets rather too absorbed in his role), and found the next two eminently skimmable. So...recommended for "Dictation," which is really a remarkable work, satisfying on multiple levels.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two stories were a bore and almost threw me off reading the second two stories, which is the primary reason for the low rating of two stars. But the third and fourth story in this quartet were amazing, many twists, and in the fourth story especially pulled me in, as the characters were brought to life I felt like I knew them personally, which is an exceptionally hard thing to do when limited to 50 pages.
Story 1: Two stars
Story 2: One star
Story 3: Three stars
Story 4: Three and a half stars

[Chaitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the longest time, I thought I had read Cynthia Ozick's Foreign Bodies, but apparently I have not. Perhaps I only meant to. Anyway, this is my first Ozick book and Henry James plays a minor part in this book as well. I don't know that I get Ozick, because I roundly missed the point of all four stories. It's not that I wasn't interested in them, I was, but in the end I wasn't too sure why any of them needed to have been written. The fourth story was my favorite, and that too because of its theme of grief and loss (which maybe true or may not) of a variety I could relate to.

[Caroline Bock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dictation - four long short stories - is a writer's treat. The title story, "Dictation," is Henry James and Joseph Conrad and their intertwined lives, and even more delightfully, the intertwined lives of their secretaries. I love when writer's lives are imagined. It's almost as good to have an actor's inner life imagined -- and that's the next story,"Actor." This short book is worth a read for these first two stories...though all four are well-written and thought-provoking. Truly, Caroline wwww.carolinebock.com

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a hard one for me to review. I loved the first story and the last story...but had trouble with the second and third stories. But one thing is for sure: Cynthia Ozick is a beautiful writer, and her work is so...interesting...that even when it's hard going it's still somehow worthwhile in the end. She's not going for casual, fun reads...she's trying to be thought-provoking, too. Sometimes, however, the stories can wind up being more confusing than thought-provoking.