Understanding Anita Brookner

234 Pages·2002·0.96 MB·English

by  Cheryl Alexander Malcolm

UNDERSTANDING
ANITA BROOKNER
Understanding Contemporary British Literature
Matthew J. Bruccoli, Series Editor
Understanding Kingsley Amis• Merritt Moseley
Understanding Martin Amis• James Diedrick
Understanding Julian Barnes• Merritt Moseley
Understanding Alan Bennett• Peter Wolfe
Understanding Anita Brookner• Cheryl Alexander Malcolm
Understanding John Fowles• Thomas C. Foster
Understanding Graham Greene• R. H. Miller
Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro• Brian W. Shaffer
Understanding John le Carré• John L. Cobbs
Understanding Doris Lessing• Jean Pickering
Understanding Ian McEwan• David Malcolm
Understanding Iris Murdoch• Cheryl K. Bove
Understanding Harold Pinter• Ronald Knowles
Understanding Alan Sillitoe• Gillian Mary Hanson
Understanding Arnold Wesker• Robert Wilcher
Understanding Paul West• David W. Madden
UNDERSTANDING
Anita
BROOKNER
Cheryl Alexander Malcolm
University of South Carolina Press
©2002 University of South Carolina
Published in Columbia, South Carolina, by the
University of South Carolina Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
06 05 04 03 02 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Malcolm, Cheryl Alexander.
Understanding Anita Brookner / Cheryl Alexander Malcolm.
p. cm. — (Understanding contemporary British literature)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-57003-435-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Brookner, Anita—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Women and
literature—England—History—20th century. I. Title. II. Series.
PR6052.R5816 Z78 2001
823'.914—dc21 2001003344
For David
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CONTENTS
Editor’s Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Chapter 1 Understanding Anita Brookner 1
Chapter 2 Can’t Buy Me Love: The Debut, Providence,
Look at Me,and Hotel du Lac 24
Chapter 3 What Child Is This . . . : Family and Friends,
The Misalliance, A Friend from England,and
Latecomers 62
Chapter 4 Happily Ever After? Lewis Percy, Brief Lives,
andA Closed Eye 98
Chapter 5 Starting Over: Fraud, Dolly, andA Private
View 130
Chapter 6 Journeying to the End: Incidents in the Rue
Laugier, Altered States, andVisitors 159
Chapter 7 Back to the Beginning? Falling Slowly and
Undue Influence 183
Notes 201
Bibliography 209
Index 213
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EDITOR’S PREFACE
The volumes of Understanding Contemporary British Literature
have been planned as guides or companions for students as well as
good nonacademic readers. The editor and publisher perceive a need
for these volumes because much of the influential contemporary lit-
erature makes special demands. Uninitiated readers encounter diffi-
culty in approaching works that depart from the traditional forms
and techniques of prose and poetry. Literature relies on conventions,
but the conventions keep evolving; new writers form their own con-
ventions—which in time may become familiar. Put simply, UCBL
provides instruction in how to read certain contemporary writers—
identifying and explicating their material, themes, use of language,
point of view, structures, symbolism, and responses to experience.
The word understandingin the titles was deliberately chosen.
Many willing readers lack an adequate understanding of how con-
temporary literature works; that is, what the author is attempting to
express and the means by which it is conveyed. Although the criti-
cism and analysis in the series have been aimed at a level of general
accessibility, these introductory volumes are meant to be applied in
conjunction with the works they cover. They do not provide a sub-
stitute for the works and authors they introduce, but rather prepare
the reader for more profitable literary experiences.
M. J. B.