Prize-winning columnist Michael Dirda takes your questions and comments concerning literature, books and the joys of reading.

Each week Dirda's name appears -- in unmistakably big letters -- on page 15 of The Post's Book World section. If he's not reviewing a hefty literary biography or an ambitious new novel, he's likely to be turning out one of his idiosyncratic essays or rediscovering some minor Victorian classic. Although he earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell, Dirda has somehow managed to retain a myopic 12-year-old's passion for reading. Heparticularly enjoys comic novels, intellectual history, locked-room mysteries, innovative fiction of all sorts.

These days, Dirda says he still spends inordinate amounts of time mourning his lost youth, listening to music (Glenn Gould, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall, The Tallis Scholars), and daydreaming ("my only real hobby"). He claims that the happiest hours of his week are spent sitting in front of a computer, working. His most recent books include "Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments" (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003) and his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, "An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland" (Norton, 2003). In the fall of 2004 Norton will bring out a new collection of his essays and reviews. He is currently working on several other book projects, all shrouded in themost complete secrecy.

Dirda joined The Post in 1978, having grown up in the working-class steel town of Lorain, Ohio and graduated with highest honors in English from Oberlin College. His favorite writers are Stendhal, Chekhov, Jane Austen, Montaigne, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot, Nabokov, John Dickson Carr, Joseph Mitchell, P.G. Wodehouse and Jack Vance. He thinks the greatest novel of all time is either Murasaki Shikubu's "The Tale of Genji" or Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu." In a just world he would own Watteau's painting "The Embarkation for Cythera." He is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, The Ghost Story Society, and The Wodehouse Society. He enjoys teaching and was once a visiting professor in the Honors College at the University of Central Florida, which he misses to this day.

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Michael Dirda: Welcome to Dirda on Books! I'm in a riled up mood just now, and need to calm myself. Without going into details, I'm having a disagreement with my editors and not feeling very kindly about it. But, alas, in dealing with editors the writer is nearly always wrong, no matter what. It's like quarrelling with your 10th grade teacher--you can't really win. Still, it's most annoying to deal with last-minute qualms about something central to a book's theme. Oh well.

I'm out in Westminster, but will soon be driving back to DC. Tonight I've agreed to say a few words at a Memorial service for Nathalie Babel, the daughter of the great Russian short-story writer, Isaac Babel. I never knew Natalie very well, but meeting her was like being conneted with her father and an entire generation of early 20th century literary giants.

But now, on to the show!

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West Coast : Re: Shakespeare as Oxford= elitism

I noticed that Sam Schoenbaum derided the original Oxfordian proponent, J.Thomas Looney, for not being a PHD, making him unqualified for the task of literary research. Isn't that an example of elitism? Why does one have to have a doctorate in literature to make a historical literary discovery? Why is it elitist to theorize that only a royal would know the inner workings of the royal court, and not elitist to declare that only PHD's in English literature can contribute to the authorship question? It seems as though taking both positions at the same time is intellectually schizophrenic.

P.S. Using Schoenbaum's logic, seeing that a 19th century amateur geologist first theorized tectonic plates and continental shifting, we should still be operating as though South America and Africa were never attached to each other. (orthodox academia did just that up until the 1960's!)

YOUR THOUGHTS?

Michael Dirda: I'm surprised that Sam would have said this, and I'd need to look at his exact wording. Sam could be derisive about some of the more crackpot theories, but this doesn't seem his sort of argument--after all, he was the first kid in his family to go to college.

But if he did claim that Looney's argument couldn't have validity only because he lacked academic credentials, he was obviously short-sighted and wrong.

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Grasonville, Md: I have recently discovered Carl Hiaasen's books and I find them to be outrageous and hilarious. Unfortunately, I've quickly read all his books. Can and would you recommend the names of some authors who as equally outrageous and funny?

Michael Dirda: Donald E. Westlake in his Dortmunder books, of which the first is The Hot Rock. Also, some of Elmore Leonard is quite funny, and also quite brutal.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books are fantasy, but they too are outrageous and funny.

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Anonymous: You were mentioned in the Reliable Source online chat today! Seems as though they couldn't find a single soul to agree with you that "shakespeare"'s canon does not exhibit deep learning or intellect.

Thanks for provoking gossip away from Nick and Jessica, and unto "Shakespeare"!

Michael Dirda: Who are Nick and Jessica?

Poets aren't scholars, they're not generally deep thinkers. Shakespeare used the conventions of his day, and put them into dazzling language. Just because we don't know this same kind of thing only means that we aren't living in his time. If we was so deeply learned, he wouldn't be as popular as he was.

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Concord, NH: While recently visiting my parents, I yanked Trollope's The Eustace Diamonds from the shelf...and could hardly put it down.

It had been a very long time since my last reading Trollope. I'm now keen to keep it up--and am tempted to read the entire oeuvre. (This could be a dangerous hobby...as I am a humble authoress and my livelihood depends on writing. Would that I were as prolific as AT!)

Michael, have I lost my mind? I know Lizzie Eustace is a dangerous creature, so perhaps I'm still under her influence. Have you a suggestion for an equally riveting follow-up Trollope? Or two? Or ten?

Michael Dirda: Well, the interesting thing about Trollope is that at least a dozen of his books could be accounted his masterpiece--there's no single or obvious peak. But since you've read the Eustace Diamons, why not read the rest of the Palliser series? There are only five others and they are kind of connected.

I'm a great fan of T's Autobiography--it might show you how to write faster.

I also like the somehwat unTrollopian The Way We Live Now.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Mr. Dirda: You mentioned "Tarzan" last week and "An Open Book" has several favorable references to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Not sure of my facts, but I think I read once that when Burroughs was living with his second wife in Hawaii, they once spied Hemingway dining alone in a restaurant. Burroughs's wife suggested he go to the table and introduce himself to the famous man. His wife assured that Hemingway would enjoy meeting him, but an unsure Burroughs stayed at his table.

You've known and dealt with a broad-spectrum of writers--from pulpic to belletristic. Any thoughts on how Hemingway might have received Burroughs? Thanks much.

Michael Dirda: Gee, hard to tell with Papa, who seems to have been a volatile personality. Maybe he'd want to get into the ring with Burroughs to show that he was tougher than the creator of Tarzan and John Carter. He might have looked down on him too, as a mere hack. On the other hand, I suspect the Hemingway would be flattered if Burroughs had said how much he admired his work.

My favorite Burroughs quote is about being a professional writer: "it's a great life, if you don't weaken."

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Thanks for Lolita: Based on your comments in this discussion, I chose Lolita for my book club's most recent selection, and I'm so glad I did. I loved it. What joyous use of language! And what an odd position Nabokov puts us in by writing so joyously about such a fraught subject. Lots to think about; lots to enjoy.

One of my book club colleagues tracked down an essay on Lolita by Roger Angell that appeared in The New Yorker in 1997, prompted by the upcoming release of the release of the then-new film version of Lolita (starring Jeremy Irons). Angell's essay is a fine example of the critic's art---your art. He elegantly formulated the reactions we tried to voice in our discussion (and had lots of ideas and reactions that hadn't occurred to us) and pulled out just the right phrases and sentences to illustrate his observations. It's really a wonderful piece. Also good were Updike's New Yorker obit for Nabokov and a piece by Wm. Styron re Lolita also prompted by the release of the J. Irons film. Original New Yorker review of Lolita was by Malcolm Gladwell. Haven't gotten to that yet.

So, thanks for pointing me to a great book. It's a long time since I read something so exciting. I want to read it again right away. For chatters: Many of you will have read Lolita already, but, if you haven't, you should do so soon! And do follow up w/Roger Angell.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. The Irons reading on tape or CD of Lolita is far mroe wonderful than his movie, which is a bit saccharine.

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Williamsburg, Va: Good afternoon,

Do you know anything about the 19th-century/early 20th century author Edward Sylvester Ellis?

Michael Dirda: No.

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Silver Spring, Md: People were disagreeing a few weeks about about the status of the Common Reader catalog and Akkadine Press.

Sadly, the parent company is bankrupt. Bankruptcy auction was held today.

Alas.

Michael Dirda: Sigh.

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Georgetown, Washington, D.C.: I enjoyed your review of the new collection of Gass essays this past Sunday. What novels of his have you read? Opinions?

Michael Dirda: There are only two--OMensetter's Luck, which is pretty universally admired, and The Tunnel, his masterpiece--the work of a lifetime--which is far more divisive, since it portrays, with some sympathy, a Nazi sympathizing history professor.

But the book is tricky in this, as in many things. Gass is not a Nazi sympathizer.

There's a piece on The Tunnel in my collection Bound to Please.

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R Street, Washington, DC: Good afternoon. With the arrival of the new Flashman volume was much advertisement in the magazines I read semi-regularly. I'd never heard of the series, but glanced at the backs of those paperback release now available at the E Street B&N. The books sounded fun and interesting. Are they?

Michael Dirda: Maybe you can find my review of the latest Flashman in the Post archives. Yes, the books are a lot of fun--they are sexist, colonialist and funny, so not everyone cares for them. But those who do tend to love the series passionately. Try one.

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New York, NY: Funny, I just went to a screening of "The Fallen Idol" which Graham Greene wrote the screenplay for, based on one of his stories. One of the main characters uses the quote "it's a great life, if you don't weaken"... also the title of a recent graphic novel by Seth...

Michael Dirda: Well, this is one of those phrases that it's probably hard to track down. But I read it in a biography of Burroughs.

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Minnetonka, Minn.: Michael,

I recently found a copy of Fanny Hill by Cleland that I bought as a teenager in 1965 when it was a dirty or banned book. I recall finding in too wordy and boring at the time. I recently found and read it. It read like a lusty Tom Jones. The sex is mild by current standards. And the words I now really found entertaining. Any thoughts about old classics?

Michael Dirda: I thought Fanny Hill was boring when I read most of it at 16 down at Boy's State (see An Open Book for details). There's been an effort to rehabilitate Cleland--FH has appeared as a Penguin classic--and no doubt scholars have examined the book from feminist perspectives and the like. To me, it just didn't do what a dirty book is intended to do--be erotically exciting. Mostly I recall stuff about huge organs. But then I don't find a lot of those 18th century engravings very erotic either. One needs suggestion more than explicitness, and for piquancy a sense of transgression. The Story of O is far more erotic, and disturbingly so.

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Austin, Tex: Hi Michael,

Are you a believer in poetry anthologies, or do you prefer to read individual volumes of work by a given poet? If you do like anthologies, do you have any favorites that you find yourself repeatedly turning to?

Michael Dirda: Anthologies are good for young people just discovering poetry. In my youth I carried around Oscar Williams' Immortal Poems of the English Language. So, in general, I like collected editions of the poets I care for. But ther are some anthologies that transcend the genre--the new Oxford volumes on 16th, 17th and 18th century verse introduce a good many new voices. The four volume Library of America American Poetry is extremely inclusive, and would satisfy nearly anyone's taste.

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Long Beach, Calif.: Greetings, Fellow ShakespeareanTwo points, if you will be so kind, 1. I've pondered over your statement of Feb.8th, "In truth, the plays don't give any evidence of great intellectual content or deep classical learning", and can no more marry them to the Shakespeare canon than I can marry an illiterate glover's son to the works. Truly a BOLD statement, Mr. Dirda! It certainly qualifies me as a shallow thinker!-------------------2. I read the five or so pages devoted to the Oxfordian position contained within the book you wrote a revised preface for, "Shakespeare's Lives", and I swear to you, it's insulting and rude. Why make fun of J.Thomas Looney's name? (correctly pronounced Low-knee) The more I read the work of Stratfordian egotists such as your pal Mr. Schoenbaum, the more I'm convinced that the 17th Earl of Oxford is the unwanted elephant in their front room. I await your return volley, as your most obliged and humble servant, Edward of Boswell

Michael Dirda: Is that Boswell--or Roswell? Just teasing.

I'm sorry to be reminded that Sam must have been ad hominem in his Looney pags--a regrettable lapse in an otherwise wonderful book.

There's just no good reason to believe Oxford wrote the plays, other than people wanting it to be so. Show me a single bit of evidence. No one ever said he wrote the plays; a dozen people alluded to Shakespeare as the author. Why would an aristocrat bother with a middle class activity like play-writing? Do you think Oxford hung out at the theater rehearsing and cutting and rewriting the plays? I could go on. I can almost understand an argument that Shakespeare didn't write his works, but see no reason to assign them to any one else based on nothing but supposition and guesswork.

You do know, of course, that it's really a committee of John Updike, Harold Bloom and Helen Vendler who writes these chats. No one person could know as much as this Dirda seems to.

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Arlington, Va: I'm reading "On Beauty" just now and am enjoying it tremendously. It seems like quite a gem. None of my friends have heard of it... Which makes me wonder why? Was it reviewed the Post? (Did you review it?)

Michael Dirda: I reviewed it, gave it a near rave. You can tell that my influence penetrates to all of Wsahington. Other reviews in other venues were more temperate.

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Anonymous: Mr. Schoenbaum also ended his diatribe against Oxfordians by invoking the image of Dalia Bacon channeling Shakespeare's ghost.

I wonder if Oxfordians should be saddled with the stigma of Baconian cyphers?

This is such a fascinting subject, and so rife with oblique clues and references, that it is impossible to have any camp be devoid of illogical suppositions. The more I read about it, the more I question the virilent

badgering of orthodox scholars with a vested interest in the status quo. Your friend Mr. Schoenbaum certainly comes off like a snob for making fun of J.Thomas Looney's surname. THANKS

Michael Dirda: Most academic scholars don't think twice about the authorship question, except when attacked over it. There's never been a single recognized scholar of Shakespeare who believed that anyone other than WS wrote the plays. Yes, I suppose you could posit another vast conspiracy. . .

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New York, NY: Are you writing a fiction book? A continuation of your memoirs? Editors can be a cruel bunch. Imagine Melville trying to get "Moby Dick" published today...

Michael Dirda: These were my editors at the Post, who are wonderful and intelligent people. But strong personalities sometimes disagree.

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Alexandria, Va: Regarding your comment last week that John Mortimer's "Rumpole of the Bailey" stories were one case where the video versions did not "ruin" the original stories, I am fairly sure that actually the paper versions came out AFTER the television shows and were based on the screenplays (which Mortimer also wrote, to be sure.)

This sometimes took some clever writing on Mortimer's part because all the published stories are written from Rumpole's point of view (except one written from the POV of "She Who Must Be Obeyed) while the TV shows are not limited in that way and depict scenes Rumpole could not possibly have witnessed.

Since the great Leo McKern, the actor who played Rumpole, has passed on to the judgment of the Great Magistrate in the sky, Mortimer has in fact continued to write more Rumpole stories, which are completely original and which I devoutly hope will never be filmed as Rumpole played by anyone but McKern would be a monstrous travesty.

Michael Dirda: You sound as if you're sure of this, so I won't seriously argue. But I would have thought that Mortimer must have written a number of the stories before anyone even thought of the series. Still, maybe this is incorrect. . . .

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The Atrocity Exhibition: I have heard that "The Atrocity Exhibition" is a great book. I hate William Burroughs' "Naked Lunch." Are they similar? Any chance I'll like "TAE" if I absolutely hated "NL"?

Michael Dirda: Hmmm. I doubt you'd like it. Ballard reveres Burroughs, and one of the stories is "The Assassination of John F. Kennedy considered as an uphill bicycle race." (REference to Dadaist writer Alfred Jarry).

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Tale of Genji: I borrowed this from the library after reading on this chat that it is THE book.

Finding it hard to get into...it seems to start abruptly, like we are interrupting somone midway through a story. Also about the footnotes explaining this or that relationship of the characters: are these written by the original author, the translator or some historian?

Any help?

Michael Dirda: If you're reading Waley's translation, there are no footnotes, so you must have one of the two modern versions, neither of which I"ve read. You should look up "Heian Holiday" in my book Readings--it will tell you more about the book and give you a better sense of its atmosphere. Nothing much really happens, aside from love affairs and court politics and a bit of supernatural stuff. But it's beautiful. Still, not everyone will like everything, and this is a very Japanese book. I suggest reading Ivan Morris's excellent World of the Shining Prince to gain a sense of the historical and cultural background.

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Washington, DC: Was in a chain store today buying notebooks and noticed that they had copies of Third Policeman on the "New Fiction" table. I got a kick out of that - though, if memory serves, it's not too far from the truth given the circumstances of the book's slow release.

On a related note, Dalkey Archive has a great deal for anyone looking to add lots of experimental lit to their library. You pick 100 titles for $500. Unfortunately, my spouse is not convinced that it is a great deal . . .

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. There's always the library.

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New York, NY: To Boston, MA who wrote last week asking about Elfriede Jelinek. I actually find with her books that they start out strong (she has a good "voice"), but for me anyway, seem to lose their strength by the end. If I may, I would recommend fellow Austrian Thomas Bernhard ("Concrete" or "The Loser" are good places to start), or Peter Handke ("The Goalie's Anxiety At The Penalty Kick" or "A Sorrow Beyond Dreams")

Michael Dirda: I admire Bernhard a lot. I'd recommend Extinction.

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Silver Spring, Md: I just finished reading Freedom and Necessity by Steven Brust and Emma Bull, which I thought was brilliant. I had never even heard of it until recently, which surprised me since it falls into a genre that I love -- the intellectual-historical-mystery/thriller a la Pears, Eco, etc. The Hegelian subtext was challenging (Friedrich Engels is a significant minor character!), but the book is riveting from the first page until the last. Because the two authors are science fiction writers and the novel was billed (incorrectly) as a fantasy, it appears not to have been widely reviewed when it came out in 1997 or to have found as wide an audience as it should have. Have you read it, or any of the science fiction works of these two authors?

Michael Dirda: Alas, no, I've not read it, and only know of Bull and Brust by reputation (good). But you do make the book sound enticing.

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Most Definitely Not From Westminster, Md: Commander Dirda (you are a commander after all some people hold you in such high esteem),

If, hypothetically (and I mean hypothetical to the full extent of the word), a student in some literature class had to write a brief essay on Rameau's Nephew, Notes from the Underground, and Les Fleurs du Mal would it be perfectly acceptable to, oh say, write a dialogue between the major characters of the three works, each engaging in deep philosophical babble for several pages?

By the way...the teacher of such a class is quite possibly one of the most intelligent, benevolent, and if I might say, handsome teachers ever to grace a classroom.

Michael Dirda: I believe that such a teacher as you describe would welcome such a paper as you suggest. Of course, if you have misjudged the character, intelligence and looks of said teacher, you could be in big trouble. But what the hey! What do you have to lose? Of course, you'd better be pretty dazzling.

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Munich, Germany: I've had a bit of Morocco and Russia on the brain lately.

Is "Under a Sheltering Sky" considered to be one of the classic pieces of literature dealing with Morocco? What else would you recommend in this vein?

Also, speaking of Babel, what are your thoughts on Turgenev? I've read that some of his contemporaries thought that he was too European and not enough Russian, but his Hunting Stories really describe the plight of the Russian peasant. Where does this discrepancy lie?

Michael Dirda: Do you mean The Sheltering Sky, by Paul Bowles? It is a European take on North Africa, but a classic nonetheless.

Turgenev is a wonderful writer, and The Hunting Sketches are just, well, wonderful. Yes, he wasn't a tormented Russophile like Doestoevsky nor a tormented sinner like Tolstoy, but he wrote beautifully, about revolutionaries and first love and much else.

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Lenexa, Kan.: Re Mortimer, The Oxford Companion to Eng-Lit puts it "he (Mortimer) gained a wide readership for his stories, many of which were adapted for television, about an eccentric defence barrister, Horace Rumpole..." That would seem to imply the stories were first--the logical progression.

Michael Dirda: Many thanks. Are there any Mortimer experts out there who can resolve this question?

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Ashcroft, B.C. (BR): The poster looking for more books in the style of Carl Hiassen should try Christopher Moore (although, like Terry Pratchett, Moore tends to work in the fantasy/supernatural genre, so if you want your humour straight, no fantasy, best to look elsewhere, perhaps. Dave Barry?).

I'm one of those who is passionate about the Flashman tales; they are all wonderful fun, but there is a solid bedrock of research and fact in each volume, so if you feel guilty for Flashy's non-PC outlook you can always console yourself with the fact that you're learning something. I've read everything Fraser has written, and not been disappointed in anything. His HOLLYWOOD HISTORY OF THE WORLD is highly enjoyable, and THE PYRATES is great for anyone who has ever thrilled to Flynn and Rathbone buckling a swash on a Saturday afternoon.

Finally: bloody editors, mutter mutter mutter. . . .

Michael Dirda: Yes, indeed, to all points made.

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Maryland: For years, I've kept a running list in a notebook of all the books I've read. I also sometimes jot down the titles of good books I've heard about (almost always from The Washington Post). I have a note that says "Malice Aforethought" and "The Lodger" are great mysteries. I neglected to write down the authors. I have checked and unfortunately, more than one author has written books with those titles! Do you have any idea which Malice Aforethought and The Lodger I want to read?

Michael Dirda: Francis Iles (aka Anthony Berkeley Cox), and Marie Belloc Lowndes.

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Washington, DC: Michael, what are your views on Chesterton? Are you a fan of Father Brown, for instance, or the Club of Queer Trades, etc.? Catholics continue to beat his drum, and Ignatius Press has helpfully kept him in print. But I do wonder why he's not got a wider audience for his stories (apart from Fr. Brown and, maybe, the Man Who Was Thursday, both of which are in the modern library paperback series) and for his essays. He's a remarkable essayist, I think. Thanks in advance....

Michael Dirda: I'm a great Chesterton fan, and own perhaps 40 of his books. Indeed, some years back I spoke at two successive Chesteron conferences in Toronto. The books you mention are his best fictions--along with The Napoleon of NOtting Hill--and he's probably not known because his style is so rich, dense with paradox, and because he espouses unpopular views, eg. he is religious, Catholic, and a supporter of an economic system called distributism. Not least, he was slightly tarred--wrongly so, for the most part--as anti-Semitic because of his association with Hilarie Belloc and his brother Cecil Chesterton, both of whom were, more or less.

But he's an amazing writer--just the most brilliant journalist imaginable.

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Fairfield, NJ: Hi,

I have just finished reading "The Making Of The President 1968" by Theodore White. I am fascinated by this era of American history. Are there any books, fiction or nonfiction, that you can recommend that focuses on this period of time. I prefer something that tells a story rather than an academic study.

Michael Dirda: Lots of books. Start with Norman Mailer's The Armies of the Night, about the march on Washington. Then try Joan Didion's early essays in Slouching Toward Bethlehem. Indeed, all the new journalists--Thompson, Wolfe, et al--got their start in the late 60s.

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Silver Spring Md - Comon Reader catalog is no more: They filed for bankruptcy in late January. A bankruptcy auction is being held this morning in New York - Pleasantville to be exact.

Too bad - a great catalog and publishing program, poorly run it seems. This takes the Akkadine Press with it.

Michael Dirda: Again, sigh.

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West Coast: How about a review of "Shakespeare by another name" by Mark Anderson (2005)

He became interested in the Authorship question after receiving an MA in Astro-physics that centered around applications

of deductive and inductive reasoning. His interest in how theories work, and what kinds of evidence supports a theory, and what kinds of evidence modifies or negates a theory led him to investigate the Shakespeare authorship question. I think you would enjoy the book, and I'm greatly curious as to whether it would change your neutral? position on this greatest of all literary mysteries.

Any chance?

Michael Dirda: I don't see this as a mystery, so don't really need to solve it, do I? But Anderson's does sound an interesting book.

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Oklahoma City, Okla.: Just got Edward Rutherford's two-volume Irish saga. I enjoyed his previous historical novels and agree, as some haved said, that he researches and writes very much in the James Michener model. Have you reviewed is work? And what other broad-scope historical novelists now writing (admittedly a small cadre) would you rfecommend?

Michael Dirda: Never reviewed. Hmmmmm. Have you ever tried Cecelia Holland, who writes historicals over all periods? Also, Dorothy Dunnett has two wonderful series set in the late middle ages and Renaissance--one The Lymond chornicles, the other about the house of Niccolo.

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Michael Dirda: And that, friends, brings us to the end of another session of DOB. Till next Wednesday at 2--keep reading!

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