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Lead book review

It feels somehow improper to witness an author groping for the right words

24 February 2024

9:00 AM

24 February 2024

9:00 AM

Write, Cut, Rewrite: The Cutting Room Floor of Modern Literature Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon

Bodleian Library Publishing, pp.200, 40

The early stages of a literary work are often of immense interest. It is perhaps a rather tawdry kind of interest, like paparazzi shots of a Hollywood starlet taking the bins out before she’s put her make-up on. Of course it’s extraordinary to think that some of the most famous characters, events and lines in literature weren’t as we now know them but had to be struggled towards.

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