TMoP, Chap 1, Page 1, Paragraph 1

[Lawrence Bryan]

Yes, although for me I thought of a film script. It does give a  
certain strange uneasiness to the reader.

I guess there's no easy way to find out how many of us are reading.

Lawrence

On Sep 18, 2008, at 7:50 AM, Joe Allonby wrote:

> Reads like stage directions.
>
> On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 6:33 AM, Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com 
> > wrote:
> "October, 1869.  A droshky passes slowly down a street in the  
> Haymarket district of St Petersburg.  Before a tall tenement  
> building the driver reins in his horse."
>
> One of the first things that might strike a reader inclined to  
> notice and ponder such aspects of "The Master of Petersburg" is that  
> the novel begins in the third person present, or more precisely, the  
> third person limited present.  Without being literally a stream of  
> conscious novel, the effect of this viewpoint is to give the novel a  
> certain psychological immediacy, an internalized quality.  At the  
> same time, the authorial voice maintains at least the vestiges of  
> realism and objectivity traditionally associated with the third  
> person viewpoint.
>
> The third person present is a rare enough point of view that  
> Wikipedia's list of novels by viewpoint doesn't include any told in  
> this person and tense (a deficiency which can now be corrected....)
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_by_point_of_view
>
>
>

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