Henry Green: Class, Style, and the Everyday

Synopsis

This Book Offers A Critical Prism Through Which Green's Fiction-from His Earliest Published Short Stories, As An Eton Schoolboy, Through To His Last Dialogic Novels Of The 1950s-can Be Seen As A Coherent, Subtle, And Humorous Critique Of The Tension Between Class, Style, And Realism In The First Half Of The Twentieth Century. The Study Extends On-going Critical Recognition That Green's Work Is Central To The Development Of The Novel From The Twenties To The Fifties, Acting As A Vital Bridge Between Late Modernist, Inter-war, Post-war, And Postmodernist Fiction. The Overarching Contention Is That The Shifting And Destabilizing Nature Of Green's Oeuvre Sets Up A Predicament Similar To That Confronted By Theorists Of The Everyday. Consequently, Each Chapter Acknowledges The Indeterminacy Of The Writing, Whether It Be: The Non-singular Functioning (or Malfunctioning) Of The Name; The Open-ended, Purposefully Ambiguous Nature Of Its Symbols; The Shifting, Cinematic Nature Of Green's Prose Style; The Sensitive, But Resolutely Unsentimental Depictions Of The Working-classes And The Aristocracy In The Inter-war Period; The Impact Of War And Its Inconsistent Irruptions Into Daily Life; Or The Ways In Which Moments Or Events Are Rapidly Subsumed Back Into The Flux Of The Everyday, Their Impact Left Uncertain. Nick Shepley. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 173-190) And Index.