Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas and Literature | 
@laur89 I thought this might interest you. It‘s in the tagged book but you can also find it here: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/06/books/too-big-to-write-smaller.html. I think he got away with the length because of who he was and it SHOULD have been edited down! (Article contains spoilers that this snippet doesn‘t.) @Hestapleton @twohectobooks
twohectobooks Yep, I agree. Sister Carrie was written earlier, is way shorter, and is way better (although I reserve judgment till the end). 5y
JCPaulk I wanted to like it, but an English lit professor ruined it 20 years ago by telling us the ending. 5y
Susannah This is so interesting. I think the tendency of established, popular writers to write more and more pages as their careers progress is (still) a real problem today. Look at Diana Gabaldon: I know people joyfully gobble up every page she writes, but I read Outlander, and even that first of the series was massively overwritten. “Where was the editor?” is a regular refrain for me. 5y
See All 6 Comments
Lcsmcat @Susannah Yes! Dare I say in public that I think Harry Potter, Book 4 needed a firm editor? Rowling had reached international fame at that point and I felt like it could have been trimmed but she didn‘t have to make concessions in order to get published, so she didn‘t. 5y
Susannah Exactly. And people want more, don‘t they, even if it has a negative impact on the story that‘s being told. It feels like a lack of editorial oversight to me. 5y
laur89 So interesting. On the other end, you have authors like Gaiman, who release a well-edited book like American Gods, and then come out with an anniversary edition with a lot of the text that was edited out. 5y
33 likes6 comments
