努力看了一小半，目前觉得特别有意思的是两人讨论彼此已经发表和正在酝酿的作品。
Nancy读了Brideshead Revisited后问：你究竟是否站在Sebastian母亲这边？我看来看去不明所以。典型的Evelyn答案：Lady Marchmain? No I'm not on her side; but God is, who suffers fools gladly; and the book is about God. Does that answer it? （我和Nancy一样摇摇头）Nancy认为Charles平庸暗淡，为什么Flyte一家都爱上了他？Evelyn答：他的角色是讲述别人的故事，本人不需要太光芒四射。（我看了这句暗自点头）
Evelyn Waugh出名较早，文学技巧也更成熟，所以经常充当Nancy的顾问。Nancy搬到巴黎住后遭遇写作瓶颈，但囿于经济状况又不得不继续写书，他给了许多中肯的意见，有一段可以拿来解释在本土出名的作家移了民后，如果强烈感受到文化反差和冲击也许还能写出点新意，不然水准难免下降。
还有一段关于小说采用第一人称是否合适You see even the most bookish and meditative minds, like A Huxley's, decay in exile. He never wrote a good novel after Antic Hay. You are so topical and on the spot & so radically English that you must feed on a fresh English diet. As an English observer thinking foreigners absurd you might be able to write about them. As a cosmopolitan you are lost.
我看到这里又大力点头。[This is] an insoluble problem because of course one always wants to say how one would write the book oneself, not how the chum should
I am sure you shoiuld stick to the first person. It suits you perfectly, but the advantage of first person is that the eye witness account. Can the first person you have chosen see enough for herself? Only you can answer that. My fear would be a series of conversation in which other characters come to consult her about their problems so that the readers get the action second hand. Is there no observer nearer the centre of things?
他还提醒Nancy特别注意人物对话：先后两部小说的女主角虽然年龄相近，性格截然不同，她们的口吻语气不应该一模一样。二十几岁的法语弯男与十来岁的英国小姑娘，所用词汇不应该有太多重叠。谁说写作不需要技巧？虽然技巧不能代表全部，也挺重要的呢。
他们用的一个词语很好玩，叫Collins。当时被邀请去作客回来都要写信感谢，这是社交的基本礼仪，一般这类信被称为Bread & Butter。P&P里Mr. Collins写给Bennet家的答谢信大大有名，所以Collins被用作了代名词。
