A one volume reissue of two novels by British writer Butts (d.
1937), one of which, Armed with Madness, appeared in the US in
1928, with the other, Death of Felicity Taverner, making its US
debut. Though in broad outline an investigation of a possible
murder, the Death of Felicity Taverner is even more an expression
of a particular mood and time - the uncertain years after WW I.
Sensitive, artistic, and elitist - better to have "one dress from
Chanel than 'six from a shop'" - brother Felix Taverner, sister
Scylla, her husband Picus, as well as Russian emigre Boris, are
spending the summer in their beloved seaside house. Here, they live
the simple life and, sensitive to nature, are convinced like Scylla
"that the land was an exfoliation, not happening in our kind of
time, a becoming of the perfected." Here they also ponder cousin
Felicity's death in France. Felicity may have been pressured to
commit suicide by her mother and brother's demand for conventional
behavior, or murdered by her estranged husband, Kralin, a sinister
Russian. And when Kralin, a man who represents all that Felicity
was not, arrives and announces his intentions to turn Felicity's
old home into a vacation development, the family is convinced he's
culpable. There is a denouement of sorts, but Butts prefers the
elliptical to the exact, and Felicity's death is more a metaphor
for the times than a real crime requiring a real solution. There's
some beautiful writing here, but not enough to give weight and
shape to a diffuse and often irritatingly fey work, riven with
period prejudices, including anti-Semitism. A minor period piece.
(Kirkus Reviews)
General
| Imprint: |
McPherson & Co Publishers,U.S.
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
March 1992 |
| First published: |
March 1992 |
| Authors: |
Mary Butts
|
| Dimensions: |
220 x 216 x 28mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback
|
| Pages: |
384 |
| Edition: |
New edition |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-929701-18-9 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
| LSN: |
0-929701-18-6 |
| Barcode: |
9780929701189 |
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