Prose Style of Robert Lynd
Introduction:
He was one of the most popular esayist of his time. He was a personal essayist. He adopted the style of Lamb but he was in many cases an original thinker and writer. While Lamb's essays are delightful readings, the essays of Lynd are full of philosophical touches and moral bent of mind. His essays are characterised by the versatility of genius.
A personal essayist:
Robert Lynd was a personal essayist. His essays like the essays of Hazlitt, Lamb, Landor and De Quincey are characterised by his likes and dislikes. While Lamb and others do not place reasons for disliking and disapproving an issue or subject, Lynd places reasons for it. Lamb does not like new books, new faces, new year and new dresses.
He does not account for his dislikes. Lynd places reasons and Logic behind his dislikes. In the essay 'The Student' Lynd says that each student likes new volumes with gaudy covers on them. Lynd says the love of novelty is the intrinsic quality of a child.
The art of story-telling:
Robert Lynd wrote a variety of essays. He had a unique gift of story-telling. He often started his essays with a story that delighted, his readers Lynd describes the essays 'Window View' to prove that children are sadists and they delight in scenes of misfortunes, cruelties and massacres.
To prove his point he describes that a married couple travelling through a bus placed his child on the seat near the window, who was delighted to see scenes of ruins and cruelties more than objects of beauty.
The writer starts his essay with the following words:
"I was sitting on the top of a London bus the other day when a man and wife took the opposite seat and placed a small daughter on her feet where she could look out of the window and see what a fine place the world is. There are I am sure, few more memorable pleasures than that of looking out of window." The child cried delightfully when she saw a scene of disaster in the following words-
"Look, mummy, look!" she would cry as we passed the skleton of a Victorian workhouse 'Damage! Damage ! Damage!'
Ideas supported with reason and logic:
Lynd's style is marked with the cult of story-telling. His stories have a motive and purpose. In the essay 'Disappointed Man' Lynd says that the source of disappointment of life is found in high expectation about a thing or object.
Disappointment or disillusionment is born out of our expectation that things in real life do not appear as grand or glorious as they appear in our imagination or as our dreams.
Lynd proves it through a story which he starts in the following words-"A blind man having received his sight as the result of a remarkable operation, confessed the other day that he was so disappointed in the world when he saw that he wondered whether he was not happier when he was blind.
Human beings were of a different shape and appearance from those with which imagination had endowed them. Everything apporently, from motor cars to flower gardens, fell short of the glorious images he had made of them. The gift of sight brought him merely disillusionment.'
The philosophic methods of his essays:
The another cult of Lynd's style is that he introduces the commonplace subjects but gives a philosophic touch to the subject-matter. While other writers have written on gift of the memory and praised it Lynd selects the loss of memory into his essay entitled "The Forgetting". Lynd points out that it is a the mark of genius. In the essay "Forgetting" he points out that forgetfulness is a boon. He writers in the following words-
"The absent-minded man is often a man who is making the best of life and therefore has no time to remember the mediocre. Who would have trusted Socrates or Coleridge to post a letter? They had soul above such things.
The above lines show that Lynd had a keen sense to look into the reality of the subject-matter. This is another cult of his style.
The variety of themes:
Another cult of his style was that he dealt with a variety of subjects. In the essay 'On Not Being A Philosopher' he jumps upon a philosophical subjects from the most ordinary and the trivial.
Lynd speaks or deals a problem as to how one has to treat the philosophy of the philosopher which is found is our books. Lynd says that the truth published in our books are such facts that cannot be ignored and contradictated, yet they are not practicable.
He present a pradox that the truths of philosophy are beyond doubt real yet it is great folly to practice them in life. The writer describes in the essay 'On Not Being A Philosopher'.
It is easier to believe that one self is a fool than that Socrates was a fool, and yet he was not right, he must have been the greatest fool who ever lived. The truth is nearly everybody is agreed that such men as Socrates and Epictetus were right in their indifference to external things."
The diadatic tone of his style:
While some writers have treated their essays merely amusive, Lynd had found them both amusive and instructive.
In the essay "A Disappointed Man" Lynd advises the readers not to keep high hopes. It is better to live on the grounds of truth than to fly in the sky of imagination. In another essay Lynd advises the readers not to follow the truths of books blindly.
His humour:
Lynd makes use of intelligent humour into his essays. In the essay "Scandal Mongers" he brings to light many humorous situations.
A Lover of Art and Literature:
In one of his essays he explains the nature of the students. All students want to read new books and they treat literature as a matter of delight. In the essay "The Students" Lynd writes -
"Literature is to them a subject, literature, is a delight. Tiny regard Aristophanes not as amusement but as a collection of answers to examination questions. Aeschylus is not a poet, but a huge pudding of silent readings.
Praise of his style:
The style of Robert Lynd has received high praises "Style is the Man" was told by the Frence writer. The same can be told about Lynd. A. S. Collins refers to the note of sincerity to be found in the style of Lynd. "Those, who know him have testified to the natural sincerity and stealing worth of the man and his essays are the man."
Lynd's language:
Robert Lynd writes in the style of Charles Lamb. He touches the commonplace topics with significance. He transmutes the simplest experiences with a fancy like beautiful and romantic glow. He could jump from one word to another, pass from one theme to another, from one mood to another lightly and easily without break.
His style is simple, humorous, reflective and sympathetic. He has made use of simile into his essays. His use of Similes into his essays are remarkable. He tells about small children-
"To listen to them is like listening
to the first birds, to see them
Is to be back in a world of
apples, live is flowers."
