Cyril Connolly: The Life and Times of England's Most Controversial Literary Critic
Books / Hardcover
Books › Biography & Autobiography › General
ISBN: 0312139535 / Publisher: St Martins Pr, January 1996
A chronicle of the life of the English essayist and critic reveals Connolly's wit, his profound influence, and discusses his friendships with the literary greats, including Eliot and Orwell
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In his lively and illuminating study of Cyril Connolly, noted biographer Clive Fisher focuses his lens on the life of one of England's most controversial and influential literary figures. Revered for his intellect, feared for his acerbic wit, the Connolly who emerges from this, the first complete account of his life since his death in 1974, was a brilliant thinker and hugely influential critic who came to literary maturity between the wars. The author of two seminal volumes, Enemies of Promise and The Unquiet Grave, and the founder and editor of Horizon, the monthly wartime magazine that sustained British culture throughout the political and social tumult of the forties, Connolly's reputation quickly spread from London to Paris, from New York to San Francisco, and throughout the English-speaking world.However, despite Connolly's early professional successes, he has been remembered more for his personal excesses and hilarious - if unseemly - behavior. Fisher brilliantly brings to life both sides of the man. Overweight, unattractive, and from an impoverished Irish family, the young Connolly scratched his way to the center of English literary life by ingratiating himself with the powerful, playing the role of a modern-day Falstaff to curry favor, and performing his adopted part with comic melancholy.Drawing on Connolly's huge collection of personal papers and previously unexplored archives in England and abroad, Fisher traces the life and times of this complex figure, exploring Connolly's legacy and restoring him to his rightful place at the heart of twentieth-century letters.
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