Notable British Novelists Richard Adams - Virginia Woolf 3 Volume set

1100 Pages·2001·15.32 MB·English

by  Carl E. Rollyson

Notable British
Novelists
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MAGILL’S C H O I C E
Notable British
Novelists
Volume 1
Richard Adams — Ford Madox Ford
1 – 350
edited by
Carl Rollyson
SALEM PRESS, INC.
Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey
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tionaries I.Rollyson,CarlE.(CarlEdmund)II.Series.
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Contents — Volume 1
Publisher’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Complete List of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Richard Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Kingsley Amis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Martin Amis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Jane Austen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
J. G. Ballard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Julian Barnes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Aphra Behn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
Arnold Bennett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
Elizabeth Bowen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Charlotte Brontë . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
Emily Brontë . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Anita Brookner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98
John Bunyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Anthony Burgess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Fanny Burney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Samuel Butler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Lewis Carroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Angela Carter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Joyce Cary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
G. K. Chesterton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Agatha Christie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Arthur C. Clarke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Wilkie Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Ivy Compton-Burnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Joseph Conrad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
A. J. Cronin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Daniel Defoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Walter de la Mare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Charles Dickens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Arthur Conan Doyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Margaret Drabble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Daphne Du Maurier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Lawrence Durrell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
v
Notable BritishNovelists
Maria Edgeworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
George Eliot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Henry Fielding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Ford Madox Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
vi
Publisher’s Note
NotableBritishNovelistsconsistsofbiographicalsketchesandanalysesof104of the
best-known English, Scottish, and Irish writers of long fiction from the fifteenth
throughthetwentiethcenturies.Theset’sthreevolumes,whichareacombinationof
newessaysandupdatedessaysfromThe CriticalSurveyofLongFiction,SecondRevised
Edition(2000),examine the works most oftenstudiedinhighschool andundergradu-
ateliteratureclasses.
Notable British Novelists profiles eighty-nine English, six Scottish, and nine Irish
writers.TheIrishwriterschosenforthissetlivedunderBritishrulebeforethecreation
oftheIrishFreeStatein1922orhadcareersthatwerecloselyassociatedwithGreat
Britain;therefore,suchmodernIrishmastersasJamesJoyceandSamuelBeckettare
not included. Notable British Novelists examines novelists from the early fifteenth
century, such as Sir Thomas Malory, to the present. Seventeenth century writers
include Aphra Behn and Samuel Butler, and eighteenth century authors Fanny
Burney,Henry Fielding, Ann Radcliffe, and LaurenceSternearefeatured.Included
in the discussions of nineteenth century writers are Wilkie Collins, George Eliot,
ElizabethGaskell,ThomasHardy,MaryWollstonecraftShelley,RobertLouisSteven-
son, and Anthony Trollope. Authors of the twentieth century include Margaret
Drabble,AldousHuxley,AnthonyPowell,andVirginiaWoolf.
Arangeofgenresandstylesisexploredinthisset,fromthe gothicismofCharlotte
and Emily Brontë and Matthew Gregory Lewis to the postmodernism of Anthony
Burgess. Fantasy fiction is represented by Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R.
Tolkien,andthesciencefictionofArthurC.ClarkeandH.G.Wellsisincluded.Among
thedetectiveandmysterywritersfeaturedareAgathaChristie,ArthurConanDoyle,
and P. D. James, and writers of satire include Jonathan Swift, Tobias Smollett, and
Martin Amis. Also featured are the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and Robert
GravesandthefeministfictionofDorothyRichardson,JeanRhys,andFayWeldon.
Eachessayprovidesreferenceinformationatitsbeginning:thenovelist’sbirthand
death dates and a list of the principal works of long fiction, with publication dates.
Thisisfollowedby“Other literaryforms,”whichbrieflylooksattheauthor’sworks
of drama, poetry, nonfiction, or short fiction, and “Achievements,” which notes
principalhonorsandawards.Themajorsectionsofthetextfollow:“Biography”offers
asummary ofthewriter’spersonalandprofessional life, and“Analysis”looks atthe
author’s work in detail. The longest section in the article, “Analysis” is divided into
subsections focusing on the major individual works. These subsections offer a short
summary ofthework and illustrate thethemes and techniques usedby thenovelist.
“Other major works” follows “Analysis” and is a categorized list of major works in
genres other than long fiction, with publication dates. Each essay ends with an
updated, annotated bibliography. The majority of essays are accompanied by a
portraitoftheauthor.
Thethree-volumesetisarrangedalphabetically.Threehelpfulreferencetoolsare
featuredattheendofvolume3:aglossaryof“Termsandtechniques,”atimelineof
thenovelists’birthdatesandplaces,andanindex.Alistofcontributingscholarsand
theiraffiliationsappearsatthebeginningofvolume1.
vii
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List of Contributors
McCreaAdams JohnR.Clark
Independentscholar UniversityofSouthFlorida
MichaelAdams SamuelCoale
CUNYGraduateCenter Independentscholar
PatrickAdcock DavidW.Cole
HendersonStateUniversity UniversityofWisconsinCenter-Baraboo
S.KrishnamoorthyAithal DeborahCore
IndianInstituteofTechnology EasternKentuckyUniversity
JaneAndersonJones CarolI.Croxton
ManateeCommunityCollege UniversityofSouthernColorado
StanleyArcher MarshaDaigle-Williamson
TexasA&MUniversity SpringArborCollege
GeraldS.Argetsinger DianeD’Amico
RochesterInstituteofTechnology Independentscholar
BryanAubrey J.MadisonDavis
Independentscholar PennsylvaniaStateUniversity
JamesBarbour FrankDay
Independentscholar ClemsonUniversity
CarolM.Barnum PaulJ.deGategno
SouthernCollegeofTechnology NorthCarolinaWesleyanColllege
DavidBarratt DeVitis,A.A.
Independentscholar PurdueUniversity
KirkH.Beetz HenryJ.Donaghy
Independentscholar KansasStateUniversity
ToddK.Bender DavidB.Eakin
UniversityofWisconsin,Madison UniversityofMississippi
K.BhaskaraRao GraceEckley
PhysicalResearchLaboratory Independentscholar
MaryA.Blackmon WiltonEckley
Hardin-SimmonsUniversity ColoradoSchoolofMines
SteveD.Boilard RobertP.Ellis
Independentscholar Independentscholar
MitziM.Brunsdale AnnWillardsonEngar
MayvilleStateCollege Independentscholar
C.F.Burgess KennethFriedenreich
Independentscholar Independentscholar
ix