One of the central themes of Brook- ner's novels has been 'resignation': Is it possible? Is it virtuous? Is it desirable? What are its compensations? What are the rewards and costs of realism and good behaviour? (This latter form of the question indeed is reflected always in her prose: what are the rewards and costs of such well-behaved, subtly, quietly, disciplined syntax?) My problem with Brookner's novels has always been that I feel that resignation is a pseudo-virtue, a vile diminishment preached to the already marginalised - originally the Victorian poor and subsequently unhappy children, frustrated women, those in pain and of course the irritating old. I still believe that we ought to be raging 'against the dying of the light'.
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