This book studies the literary climate of the British 1930s through a critical assessment of some of its influential and socially representative fiction. The works depict, in various ways, a culture under the stress of seemingly insoluble economic and intensifying international dilemmas, a culture that seems betrayed by the promise of its past and the paralysis of its present. The fiction continues transforming solutions, individual and sexual rebellions as well as the fears and attractions of social and political change. Examples of novelists treated include Richard Aldington, J.B. Priestley, Rosamond Lehmann, Elizabeth Bowen, Henry Green, Patrick Hamilton and Rebecca West.

Originally published in 1962, this book by James Gindin addresses the expanded scope of British writing in the wake of the Second World War, not only in terms of the increased equality between the classes but also of varied uses of humor, the impact of Britain's relationship with America and changes in literary style. Gindin shows how the work of authors such as Iris Murdoch, Kingsley Amis and Doris Lessing, among others, reflects the change in society's terms compared to their literary predecessors. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in modern English fiction.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.