When Best SF (1955) appeared it was unique in several ways: its editor was a respected literary figure its publisher, Faber and Faber, was a prestigious one and it made no apologies or excuses for presenting sf as a legitimate form of writing. But they travelled as far as little ol' New Zealand, too.Īs John Clute puts it in his magisterial Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:Ĭrispin's work in sf Anthologies was of great influence. His distinguished series of anthologies of SF, crime, and horror stories did a great service to the dissemination of each of these forms on the UK literary scene, in particular. I suppose that it shouldn't really come as a surprise that Crispin was so astute and pleasure-of-reading-focussed a critic. Nor did the TV adaptation really do it justice. It is quite wonderfully moving and good, I think - far better than the follow-up, The Levant Trilogy. I Want It Now is certainly not one of his most celebrated novels - no Lucky Jim or One Fat Englishman - but it is, again, quite exceptionally fun to read even in so impressive a line-up of hits.Īs for The Balkan Trilogy, I've always been glad that this casual reference by Crispin inspired me to track it down and read it a number of times before it achieved temporary apotheosis as a TV miniseries with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Kingsley Amis, too, is an author whom I've read both in bulk and in depth. By far the most famous of these is A Clockwork Orange, but I'd already clocked The Doctor as by far the most entertaining of the bunch even before reading Crispin. The Doctor is Sick is one of four novels written by Anthony Burgess during his 1960 annus mirabilis, shortly after receiving a (later rescinded) sentence of death from his doctors. I haven't read the Lehmann book or much of Elizabeth Bowen beyond her short stories, but the others seem quite inspired to me. They're not all obvious choices by any means. Volume One: The Great Fortune / Volume Two: The Spoilt City / Volume Three: Friends and Heroes. The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen. In strictly alphabetical order, reference is being made to: It's as if he can't quite bring himself ever to forget the morality of the spectacle he's creating, however frivolously it may be framed. His victims are not the cardboard cut-outs of an Agatha Christie or even a Dorothy Sayers, but living, breathing people, whose brutal deaths leave a gap in the world. I've sometimes wondered if it's connected to Crispin's unusual focus on the consequences of crime. I don't know if this was intentional or not. His age seems fixed around 40, regardless of what year it is, and his Academic position at Oxford remains essentially unchanged throughout. It's almost as if the more we hear about him, the less there he is. On the contrary, as I read my way through the books as a teenager, I was struck by how well portrayed and accurately placed most of the other people are, and how bizarrely unfocussed is Fen. Not that Fen is a well-developed character. One of things that interests me most about the Montgomery / Crispin books is Gervase Fen himself.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |