Critical Reputation
Holding was much admired during her day. Raymond Chandler, one of the top writers of detective fiction during its golden age of 1920–1940, said of Holding that she was “the top suspense writer of them all.”
Literary critic Anthony Boucher wrote: “For subtlety, realistic conviction, incredible economy, she’s in a class by herself.” . Boucher also praised Holding's Miss Kelly as "one of those too-rare juvenile fantasies with delightful appeal to the adult connoisseur."
Holding's novel The Blank Wall (1947) was so popular in its day that it was made into a movie titled The Reckless Moment in 1949. In 2001 it was made into the movie The Deep End starring Tilda Swinton. The novel was republished by Persephone Books in 2003 and reprinted in 2009. A number of Holding’s books have also been brought back into reprint by Stark House Press and made available to a new group of readers.
Read more about this topic: Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Life
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or reputation:
“Good critical writing is measured by the perception and evaluation of the subject; bad critical writing by the necessity of maintaining the professional standing of the critic.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“A prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would lose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not lose it for him, if this is possible; but if he cannot, he need not concern himself unduly if he ignores these less serious vices.”
—Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527)