ABSTRACT
Spender wrote two letters to Christopher Isherwood by way of prefacing this review:
About the ‘Ascent.’ I liked it very much. It’s impossible to say much more than this until I see it performed as all the points I am unclear about would either be cleared up or made defects by the acting. On a first reading, I was slightly disappointed because I judged it on the one hand by Wystan’s single poems & on the other by your novels or stories. To me, it isn’t as interesting as either but I dare say that is inherent in what you are trying to do. It strikes me that you both, as it were, draw too much on your ample resources. Wystan’s psychology comes pat, the son is in love with his mother, there are lots of striking bits of annotation & psychological observation; this is a currency on which Wystan can draw whenever he likes. The same with characterization – your hallmark – which is altogether well done.
I think that probably a play is bound to be a display of ‘effects,’ so this is not criticism at all. I only say it to show my state of mind. Anyhow, there are very beautiful & interesting scenes, it is an improvement on ‘Dogskin,’ and Ransom is very moving. I think Wystan’s versification now has a light style of its own, which is quite distinct from jazz or doggerel.
When I have seen the performance, I shall know my mind. Louis MacNeice says you have re-written a lot, in which case I have no doubt that you will have removed my objections! (Letter 34, October 5 (1936), ‘Letters to Christopher,’ Santa Barbara, Calif.: Black Sparrow Press, 1980, pp. 121–2)
I’ll send you today or tomorrow ‘Left Review’ with my article on the ‘Ascent,’ which you may not have seen. When it actually comes on, one of us will write it up again to do it the justice it deserves. I hope you won’t feel I’ve been unfair. Really my only objection is that at the end of the play instead of giving the consequences of Ransom being the kind of person he is, you give an acute piece of analysis. To my mind the most interesting thing about Ransom is that he is a prig; perhaps that is even more important than his fascism, which is after all a doctrinaire point. I am sure it is more important than that he is in love with his mother. I can’t help taking it for granted that all Wystan’s & your heroes are in love with their mothers.
An American friend of mine, called Lincoln Kirstein [see No. 80 below], wrote to me how much he admired the ‘Ascent’ which seems to be very successful over there. (Letter 35, October 30 (1936), Ibid., p. 123)
