JM: My point, exactly.This is why I prefer SB's last hypothesis because
it turns the focus back to the novel and to HH's fantasies.
SB: I must admit that I am not so quick to reject
the first two hypotheses, if only because of the "green lane in
paradise". True, an illegitimate authorial trespass--but a
thought-provoking one.
As Confessions go, I quick survey:
"The Confessions of St. Augustine", "The Confessions of Jean Jacques
Rousseau" Quincey's "Confessions of an English Opium Eater" , Madonna's
"Confessions on a Dance Floor"... .
Here's another confession, one I'm writing
something about right now. Haven't yet discovered whether anyone else
has drawn attention to it (if so, please let me know):
The chapter "At Tikhon's" in Dostoevsky's The Possessed (or Demons
or Devils) includes Stavrogin's confession, called "From
Stavrogin", of debauching and bringing about the death of 14-year-old
Matryosha. The narrator comments on the text: "I introduce this
document into my chronicle verbatim. One may suppose it is now known to
many. I have allowed myself only to correct the spelling errors, rather
numerous, which even surprised me somewhat, since the author was after
all an educated man [. . .]. In the style I have made no changes,
despite the errors and even obscurities. In any case, it is apparent
that the author is above all not a writer". (690-691, Demons,
trans Pevear & Volokhonsky, Vintage 1995). The chapter has an
interesting publication history, having been long suppressed and only
published decades after the novel's original edition, sometime around
the 1920s. Some editions (like this one) now put this added chapter at
the end, while others place it at its chronological position within the
novel.
Stephen Blackwell