Description
About the Author
Ernest Bramah was born Ernest Brammah Smith in Hulme, Manchester, on 20 March 1868, and was educated at Manchester Grammar School. He died on 23 June 1942, in Weston-Super-Mare. He was a professional writer but was notoriously secretive about his life. Today he is chiefly remembered for his celebrated stories about Kai Lung from 1900, and his short stories about the blind detective Max Carrados, from 1914. Jeremy Hawthorn (author of the Introduction) is a retired professor of English who lives in Trondheim, Norway. He has written articles and books on Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, and literary theory. His textbook Studying the Novel (Bloomsbury Academic) is now in its seventh edition, and his The Reader as Peeping Tom (Ohio State University Press) was published in 2014.
Reviews
The Times Literary Supplement published a long and detailed review of What Might Have Been in the issue of 24 November 2017. They said that What Might Have Been 'abounds in humour and wit, especially in the early chapters. Bramah's condemnation of the power of the press to corrupt and mislead is as pertinent today as it was in 1907'. Also: 'the volume's excellent introduction by Jeremy Hawthorn offers a welcome addition to the otherwise general paucity of critical material on Bramah'.They quoted their favourite joke from the book: '"Hastings permitted mixed flying. It was a question that had embittered many a town council. To one section ... it seemed hideous that coatless men should be allowed to spread their wings within a hundred and fifty yards of shoeless women'.
Book Information
ISBN 9781999828004
Author Ernest Bramah
Format Paperback
Page Count 360
Imprint Handheld Press
Publisher Handheld Press
Series Handheld Classics