critical commentary I Oliver Barnes
‘The Pursuit of Substance’ traces the spiritual and moral development of its protagonist, Sybil, by incorporating the formal characteristics of modernist literature.The story’s departure from classical and traditional forms is reflected in the deeds of its main character who, in “... gliding from one unbeaten path to the next”, emulates the intrepidity of modernist authorship. The urban setting for Sybil’s ‘voyage’ is designed to appear oppressive and chilling. Words such as “circumscribed”, “legion” and “imposing” convey a sense of a dystopian London where individuality has been entirely obscured. This setting is inspired by the London featured in ‘The Mysterious Case of Miss V.’ by Virginia Woolf, in which individuals are reduced to mere occupations: “the butcher […] the postman [and] the parson’s wife”. Both Sybil and Janet V. embody the Baudelarian notion of the flâneur or stroller, a figure who moves throughout the labyrinthine spaces of the city, concurrently indulging in its excesses and casting a critical eye on the uniformity and prodigality of modern life within it. In ‘The Pursuit of Substance’, the complex sentence structure serves as an objective correlative for Sybil’s psychological processes, communicating the overriding conflict between his perceptions and values. As an extension of the story’s Baudelarian progression of thought, the inverted relationship between rich and poor is particularly significant. Its purpose is to expose the aristocratic pretensions of order and morals, alluding most notably to “the genteel men [cantering] and [capering] about”. This logical disjunction within the text – or aporia – works to undermine the socially constructed image of the aristocracy. Similarly in H.H. Munro’s ‘The Reticence of Lady Anne’, “[the] temptations [which come] to [Egbert], in middle age” betray a sense of sexual frustration,
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