Weekend Stubble

Last Sunday's LA Times reviewed Stuart Kelly's new book The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All the Great Books You Will Never Read. They noted that the discovery of a "lost book" doesn't always raise a reputation:

Even worse is the story of Menander, adored by Plutarch and Julius Caesar, whose writings were presumed lost. All that was left was his reputation ("second only to Homer") until his work was rediscovered, in 1905. First, there was great excitement; then, critical revision. As Kelly puts it, "One of [his] favorite plots could be summarized as: 'Whoops! I raped someone last night,' which normally ended with perpetrator and victim realizing that they are the love of each other's lives, and getting married."

Naturally, he is now called "the father of the sitcom."