In "Readers and Writers (1917-1921)," A. R. Orage offers a profound exploration of the intricate relationship between authors and their audiences during a transformative era in literature. The collection of essays embodies Orage's incisive literary style, marked by keen observation and a deep appreciation for both established and emerging authors. Written in the aftermath of World War I, these essays engage with the shifting literary landscape, addressing the evolving role of literature in...

A student asked:I have heard the phrase "listening to the book in all three centers" and I am not clear on how it can be done.Orage:It isn't a matter of how it can be done, but of understanding what it means and then wishing to hear the book that way. Remember how you listened to stories you heard when you were a child, so that you participated, your hair stood on end and your eyes shone or you wept? That is readi...

Alfred Richard Orage (1873-1934), whom G. B. Shaw declared the most brilliant editor of the past century, suddenly laid down his pencil in 1922 and sold his famous journal The New Age to work with the mystic G. Gurdjieff in France. Orage hoped that with Gurdjieff's help, he could come to a more fundamental understanding of the human species. For Orage, modern man had come to the end of his tether, and without the development of new faculties, he was convinced that the problems tha...

Fontenelle.—There is a reason that Fontenelle has never before been translated into English. It is not that Mr. Ezra Pound, who has now translated a dozen of Fontenelle’s dialogues, was the first to think of it. Many readers of the original have tried their hand at the translation only to discover that somehow or other Fontenelle would not “go” in English as he goes in French. The reason is not very far to seek. Fontenelle wrote a French peculiarly French, a good but an untranslatable Fren...