Book Review - The Problem of Style by J. Middleton Murry

 The Problem of Style by J. Middleton Murry

London: Oxford University Press, 1967  (first published 1922)

This is an interesting little tome. Originally lectures delivered at Oxford University in 1921, Middleton Murry has grappled in this book with the notion of literary style, what it is and what it isn't, and how authors achieve it.

Through a connected series of pithy chapters, Murry contends that style comes from the author's heightened sensibility approaching language in a way that explains exactly the message or story that he or she is trying to express - "every work of enduring literature is not so much a triumph of language as a victory over language".

Therefore there are potentially as many styles as there are authors, although not all authors necessarily have a style. The process of creating a style comes from an author using their individual sensibility to pin down exactly what it is they are trying to say - "but the smallest writer can do something to ensure that his individuality is not lost, by trying to make sure that he feels what he thinks he feels; - that he thinks what he thinks he thinks, that his words mean what he thinks they mean."

Style differs when the story differs: Murry does not feel there is any difference between poetry and prose in terms of a hierarchy of style, merely that one form or the other is perhaps more appropriate to convey certain messages. This leads Murry to talk about the appropriateness of poetic language in prose, and back to the contention that the author should use exactly the language required to impart their vision, nothing more. Of course this might mean a more or less florid style as is suited to the message, but using language merely to aggrandize is always wrong.

As a relatively poor student of literary criticism, there is much in this book for me to ponder. Worth a look.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell