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This dissertation has been 65—13,300 microfilmed exactly as received WYLY, Jr., Ralph Donald, 1932- THE TRAVEL BOOKS OF NORMAN DOUGLAS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1965 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan THE TRAVEL BOOKS OF NORMAN DOUGLAS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio S tate U niversity 3y Ralph Donald Wyly, Jr., B.A., M.A. The Ohio S tate U niversity 1965 Approved Adviser artment of English VITA I, Ralph Donald Wyly, Jr., was born on June 8, 1932 In Washington, D.C. I received my secondary and high school education in St. Petersburg and Jacksonville, Florida. I received my 6.A. and M.A. degrees from Florida State University in 1955 and 1957. With the exception of a year at the University of Illinois, my Ph.D. studies have been undertaken at The Ohio State University, from 1959 to 1965. In 1963-196^ I lived in Europe, studying one year at the University of Rome on a grant from the Italian Foreign Ministry. i i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 1 Chapter I . THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE TRAVEL BOOKS..................................... 9 I I . THE ORIGINS OF THE TRAVEL BOOKS: DOUGLAS AND SOUTH ITALY................................................. 2k I I I . THE PROBLEM OF FORM.................................................................... k6 IV. THE ASSOCIATIONAL UNIT................................................................ 65 V. THE STYLE OF THE TRAVEL BOOKS............................................... 91 VI. THE EXTERIOR VOYAGE.................................................................. 137 V II. THE INTERIOR VOYAGE.................................................................. 171 V III. CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 195 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................. 200 i l l INTRODUCTION Norman Douglas1 reputation has sadly declined from what It was in 1927 when E. M. Forster considered him "one of our foremost w rite rs ,to the miniscule footnote in Baugh's Literary History of England. Several explanations for this precipitate decline have been offered: that Douglas failed to follow the successful South Wind with another South Wind: that he failed to present a "creative" vision of life to an age that had turned away from actualities; and that he failed to adopt any of the techniques of the twentieth- century literary practitioner—unorthodox point of view, distorted time and chronological sequences, and elaborate symbolism—all necessary to an author's reputation.^ There is doubtless some truth to these explanations. Xh addition, a fourth was advanced by H. H. Tomlinson in his study of Douglas written in 1931 * for the handwriting was already on the wall. Tomlinson thought that Douglas had been neglected as a creative writer because critics could not label him, that is, place him in any of the accepted genres, despite the fact that Douglas had written five full-length travel books, of which Old Calabria is probably one of the best in our language. Tomlinson, I feel, has best accounted for Douglas' problematic status in twentieth-century literature. Because critics, in sur­ veying the literature of the past half century, have seen Douglas as a novelist, they have neglected or misunderstood his merits as 1 a writer. The reputations of Swift and Fielding would also suffer if we insisted on evaluating them as poets and dramatists. Although Douglas rightfully deserves mention as a novelist, he merits full consideration only as a travel writer. Those readers, personal friends, generally, who have bothered to peruse his books carefully are unanimous in pointing out that as a travel writer, and only as a travel writer, he excelled. Comptom Mackenzie, Constantine Fitzgibbon, Richard Aldington, Cyril Connolly, V. S. Pritchett, R. M. Dawkins, H. M. Tomlinson, John Davenport, Ian Greenlees, and Lionel Trilling all concur that Douglas 3 best writing is in his travel books, and not, for example, in the much better known South Wind, unique though that book may be. Classifying Douglas as a travel writer will not of course automatically restore his lost prestige as an author. Such a step, however, makes possible a fair evaluation because it accepts Douglas where he was strongest. In­ deed, Douglas must not be evaluated for what he was only secondarily: a novelist, a literary critic, an essayist, or a historian. As a travel writer, rather than a novelist, Douglas repays study for several reasons. First, the travel books are interesting for what they tell us of the traveler-author, Norman Douglas. Travel books are often close to autobiography, and Douglas' perhaps more so than is usually the case. His last two travel books, Alone and Together, are genuine "autobiographical excursions," as Douglas sub­ titled his official autobiography, Looking Back. Douglas was a fascinating man who knew what he wanted out of life. Few men, one suspects, have been more confidently independent of their times, or lived more freely than Douglas. In 1928, D. H. Lawrence observed that he had known only two men who had accepted life without reservation, his own father and Norman Douglas 2 "Nothing else but the joy of life had concerned them. Douglas * .1oie de vivre tinges the pages of his tra v e l books, e sp e c ia lly ftlowa- and marks him as an unm istakable "character," an eccentric who may amuse or infuriate, but who never bores. Douglas thus belongs in that small group of men who have managed to express in words their unfeigned delight at being alive. One thinks of Pepys and Boswell. It is possible that Douglas will eventually be valued as a writer of autobiography; if so, his repu­ tation will stand primarily on his travel books. The travel books are also worth careful study for their style. Constantine Fitzgibbon*s judgment that Douglas' five travel books "would assure his fame as one of the great writers of English prose" is patently an exaggeration, and typical of the praise Douglas' friends have heaped on his books, praise which has done him more harm than good.** Yet there is much to admire about Douglas' style. Frequently, his prose takes on a rare conversational quality that marks it as genuinely distinctive, while at other times, he achieves a Joycean virtuosity in the handling of words, without any sacrifice of clarity. Part of the excellence of Douglas' style is that generally it serves larger ends, that of revealing a complex and many-sided world in the earlier travel books, and that of expressing the personality of the author himself in the later books. Because I b Douglas' excellence as a stylist has been neither seriously questioned nor examined, I have discussed the style of the travel books at some length, with especial emphasis on Its growth and change. Finally, Douglas' travel books are worth studying as travel books, as interesting records of trips and excursions into lands Interesting in themselves. Calabria, the Vorarlberg, Tunis, all are fascinating regions, particularly when seen through the eye of such an individual as Norman Douglas. One is struck by the odd facts Douglas uncovers of Calabria, or his native Thuringen, or Capri; Old Calabria itself is so rich in detail that several readings are necessary before one "grasps" the book. In particular, one is impressed by the way Douglas has immersed himself in the past of the places he describes, and made that past come alive, as it does at Saracen Ducera, or HLumenegg, or Taranto. In short, the travel books of Douglas can be read and studied for the satisfaction they give an inquiring mind. In the first brief chapter, I have attempted to disentangle the chronology of Douglas' travel books. Much of the disorganized nature of Siren Land and Old Calabria is due to the way Douglas assembled these books out of material written at different periods. The second chapter relates Douglas' early travel books to his biography and his readings. Old Calabria is seen as being influenced by earlier travel writers on Calabria, while Siren Land is the direct result of Douglas* studies on the present and past of Capri. The third chapter evaluates Douglas' approach to the travel book as a whole, and attempts to explain why, after failing to organize the early travel books, he was able to achieve a sense of organic unity in Alone and Together. The fourth chapter examines the individual chapter or unit as a carefully constructed associational sequence. The fifth chapter traces in some length the change in Douglas' style from the rich formality of Siren Land to the conversational ease of Alone. The six th chapter comments on Douglas' interpretation of the world about him, that is, the world of the first three travel books. The final chapter studies the auto­ biographical elements in Douglas' last two travel books. Throughout my study, I have been guided by the thesis that as Douglas changed and matured as a man, so the travel books changed and matured with him. Since Old Calabria and Alone are easily the finest of Douglas' five travel books, I have centered my discussion when possible on these two books. Ify discussion of Fountains. the weakest of the travel books, is minimal, and One Day, little more than a pamphlet, has not been considered at all. To date, Douglas has received scant critical attention. At present, there is only one full-length study, Ralph C. Idndeman's unpublished doctoral dissertation, "Norman Douglas: a Critical Study," University of Pittsburgh, 1956. Idndeman's study is an odd combination of insight and factual error. Before Lindeman, Douglas was studied principally by personal friends, or enemies. Thus, Nancy Cunard's Grand Man and Richard Aldington's Pinorman. both published in 195^» are tallyings of Douglas' virtues and sins; neither book offers much to the inquiring student. In the early thirties, two close friends, the travel writer H.

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