And then there is the grandpappy of them all, Jack London's John Barleycorn<\/em>. My analysis: Jack London, John Barleycorn, and the Noseless One<\/a>. (Perhaps an astute literary type will point me to a booze novel in English temporally antecedent to London's.)<\/span><\/p>\n It is interesting to note in these waning days of dear October, Kerouac month, that Lowry<\/a> and Jack both died of drink and at the same age: 47. The difference seems to have have been that Lowry was deliberately out to off himself on the day of his death, his last binge fueled as it was with barbiturates, while Kerouac had not fixed upon 21 October 1969 as Todestag<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n The mystery of self-destruction! Is there a natural explanation? Or is the booze monkey a real demon?<\/span><\/p>\n There follows an example of of a Lowry sentence that will slow down the serious reader, indeed bring him to a dead stop, as he tries to untangle the syntax. Lowry being a Cambridge man, we assume he knows how to write English. But then we come across this:<\/span><\/p>\n His love had brought a peace, for all too short a while, that was strangely like the enchantment, the spell, of Chartres itself, long ago, whose every sidestreet he had come to love and caf\u00e9 where he could gaze at the Cathedral eternally sailing against the clouds, the spell not even the fact he was scandalously in debt there could break. (13)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As I said, this novel is not a 'page turner.' <\/span><\/p>\n Addendum<\/strong> (10\/28)<\/span><\/p>\n London Ed writes,<\/span><\/p>\n If you mean a novel that is almost entirely about<\/em> drunkenness, i.e. whose subject is just drunkenness, such as Lowry, then you won\u2019t find much in 19th<\/sup>century literature. I recommend Lamb\u2019s Confessions of a Drunkard<\/a>, if you haven\u2019t come across it already, but that is an essay, not a novel. (It has been questioned whether Lamb actually was a drunkard, but the evidence suggests he was).<\/span><\/p>\n In A Tale of Two Cities<\/em> \u2013 as you surely know \u2013 a drunkard is the central character, and drunkenness is one of the themes, but the central theme is an unusual kind of redemption, not drink itself.<\/span><\/p>\n See also The Tenant of Wildfell Hall<\/a>, where again drunkenness is a theme, but not central. Bronte may have modelled the drunken character on her alcoholic brother Bramwell, although she may have been influenced by The Anatomy of Drinking<\/a> (Robert Macnish, 1835), which is worth a visit (\u2018Men of genius are often unfortunately addicted to drinking\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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