The Rise of Henry Morcar


Book Description

This is the final instalment of Bentley's famous Inheritance Trilogy.Filmed by Granada in 1967, the Inheritance trilogy is Phyllis Bentley's most widely acclaimed work.Set against the backdrop of the textile industry in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the trilogy chronicles the lives of several families over 153 trouble-torn years, from the Luddite riots of 1812 to the death of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965. Vividly depicted, and moving to the last, this trilogy is an example of regional fiction at its finest.Speaking of the reason for the work, Bentley wrote that it is a story of "decency and integrity, courage and compassion... passed down the generations; we are always the heirs of the past and begetters of the future ages. It will be seen that this thought is the meaning of the title 'Inheritance.' It is not material wealth which is meant, but a spiritual heritage."




Narratives of Memory


Book Description

This book identifies memory a previously unexamined concern in both literary and popular writing of the 1940s. Emphasizing the use of memory as a structural device, this book traces developments in narrative, during and immediately after the war. Authors include Margery Allingham, Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Patrick Hamilton and Denton Welch.










The Partnership


Book Description

It is a strange partnership which the two women, Lydia and Annice, share. "Some people are born to live,†? reflects Lydia bitterly, "and others to make it possible for them to do so.†? Lydia the conscientious, inhibited do-gooder, daughter of the saintly Methodist minister Charles Tolefree Mellor, belongs to the second class, Annice with her joyous, amoral love of life, to the first. Lydia brings Annice to the household as maid. The result is to renew old griefs between the Mellors and Lydia's uncle, the hard successful man of business Herbert Dyson. Of Dyson's two sons – the capable Wilfred, son of a woman he detested, and Eric the foolish lad on whom he dotes – Lydia loves Wilfred. But it is Annice's blatant appeal to Eric's sensuality which triumphs. This is a family story of few figures and limited background, but so admirably constructed, characterised and written that it achieves the status of a true work of art.




Royal Flush


Book Description

This is not an historical novel in the ordinary sense. It is something new: the life of an actual royal family, whose story is so rich and varied that it falls naturally into the form of a modern novel. The heroine is Princess Henrietta of England, known to family as Minette. She is the Duchess of Orleans, and linked dramatically to the fate of her brother, Charles II, and that of her cousin, Louis XIV.




Tales of the West Riding


Book Description

It is a wonderfully wide and multifarious pageant of West Riding life that Phyllis Bentley has spread before us down the years: and now, in Tales of the West Riding (six stories, one of them almost a novel in itself), she enriches it with a number of episodes as vivid as any that have come from her pen. They are dated 1434, 1641, 1845, 1870, 1930 and 1962, and their temporal span is matched by the variety of the emotions they embody. There is, for instance, the quiet but poignant story of a woman's lifelong silence for the sake of an unrequited love: and there is that other story of jealousy in a woman's heart as cruel as the grave. At the beginning of the series, in 1434, Richard Askrode must seek permission from Rome to marry the girl he loves: at the end of it, in 1962 we see in The Hardaker Affair the other side of Room at the Top. In this exciting novella, with its terrible ending, Phyllis Bentley's power of characterisation is seen at its very highest.




The Bibliography of Regional Fiction in Britain and Ireland, 1800–2000


Book Description

Pioneering and interdisciplinary in nature, this bibliography constitutes a comprehensive list of regional fiction for every county of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England over the past two centuries. In addition, other regions of a usually topographical or urban nature have been used, such as Birmingham and the Black Country; London; The Fens; the Brecklands; the Highlands; the Hebrides; or the Welsh border. Each entry lists the author, title, and date of first publication. The geographical coverage is encompassing and complete, from the Channel Islands to the Shetlands. An original introduction discusses such matters as definition, bibliographical method, popular readerships, trends in output, and the scholarly literature on regional fiction.




A Dictionary of Writers and their Works


Book Description

Over 3,200 entries An essential guide to authors and their works that focuses on the general canon of British literature from the fifteenth century to the present. There is also some coverage of non-fiction such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as inclusion of major American and Commonwealth writers. This online-exclusive new edition adds 60,000 new words, including over 50 new entries dealing with authors who have risen to prominence in the last five years, as well as fully updating the entries that currently exist. Each entry provides details of a writer's nationality and birth/death dates, followed by a listing of their titles arranged chronologically by date of publication.




British Popular Culture and the First World War


Book Description

Much of the scholarship examining British culture of the First World War focusses on the 'high' culture of a limited number of novels, memoirs, plays and works of art, and the cultural reaction to them. This collection, by focussing on the cultural forms produced by and for a much wider range of social groups, including veterans, women, museum visitors and film goers, greatly expands the debate over how the war was represented by participants and the meanings ascribed to it in cultural production. Showcasing the work of both established academics and emerging scholars of the field, this book covers aspects of British popular culture from the material cultures of food and clothing to the representational cultures of literature and film. The result is an engaging and invigorating re-examination of the First World War and its place in British culture. Contributors are: Keith Grieves, Rachel Duffett, Jane Tynan, Krisztina Robert, Lucy Noakes, Stella Moss, Carol Acton, Douglas Higbee, John Pegum, Eugene Michail, Victoria Stewart, Virginie Renard, Claudia Sternberg, Richard Espley and Stephen Badsey. Erratum Introduction, Jessica Meyer, page 11 in the first sentence of the second paragraph, for 'talke' read 'talk.'