Present your views on Frances Barney's writting style in her letter to Mrs. Philips. (Question from English Literature)
Answers
The 20th century is such a complex and problematic age that it cannot be represented by a single voice or
character. We can hardly call it the Age of Science, for even physics is today on the verge of metaphysics, nor
will it suffice to designate it as the Age of Anxiety, for that really tells nothing. Neither it is humanistic, nor
classical, nor scientific, nor romantic, nor one of the compromise. We cannot simply sum up the age by a single
charming epithet, as in case with the previous eras, e.g. the Age of Chaucer, the Age of Milton, the Age of
Dryden, the Age of Pope, the Age of Wordsworth, and so on and so forth. The 20th century is a peculiar mass
that entraps us with tempting baits heartlessly; it is a baffling mass of currents and cross-currents. The
moment we set out to discover it, it becomes a mirage.