In the key of Miriam

Some reviews of Pilgrimage that I have glanced at seem to be drawn into a recitation of the incidents of the novels. That is a partial reading perhaps even an errant one. I see them as the music of character in the key of Miriam. In each situation the same themes return and the resolution of their oppositions follows a pattern; enthusiasm, disdain, intellectual snobbery, and retreat. So far so young.

None of this is retrospectively self serving. Miriam is a sort of bluestocking pill who has no discernable sense of humour. There are Four Volumes or Movements. I do not expect the strings of Romance to swell.