The Fictions of Anita Brookner: Illusions of Romance

205 Pages·1992·0.91 MB·English

by  John Skinner (auth.)

THE FICTIONS OF ANITA BROOKNER
Also by John Skinner
TELL-TALE THEORIES: Essays in Narrative Poetics
The Fictions of
Anita Brookner
Illusions of Romance
JOHN SKINNER
Senior Lecturer in English
University of Turku, Finland
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-22016-8 ISBN 978-1-349-22014-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22014-4
© John Skinner 1992
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1992
ISBN 978-0-312-06862-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Skinner, John, 1945-
The fictions of Anita Brookner : illusions of romance / John
Skinner.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-06862-2
1. Brookner, Anita-Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PR6052.R5816Z88 1992
823'.914-dc20 91-4989
CIP
for Carla
Contents
List of Abbreviations Vlll
Acknowledgements ix
1 Introduction 1
2 The French Connection 22
A Start in Life 22
Providence 36
Look at Me 51
3 Novel Departures 66
Hotel du Lac 66
Family and Friends 83
A Misalliance 97
4 Creative Returns 113
A Friend from England 113
Latecomers 128
Lewis Percy 143
5 Fictions of the Self 159
Narrative Strictures 159
Autobiographical Structures 168
Notes 185
Bibliography 190
Index 194
vii
List of Abbreviations
The titles of Anita Brookner's novels in the index are abbreviated
as follows:
SL A Start in Life
P Providence
LM Look at Me
HL Hotel du Lac
FF Family and Friends
M A Misalliance
FFE A Friend from England
L Latecomers
LP Lewis Percy
viii
Acknowledgements
The author and publisher are grateful to Dr Brookner, Jonathan Cape
Ltd and Pantheon Books for pennission to quote from the novels
discussed. The present study is unauthorized.
ix
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Introduction
Among recent or contemporary novelists writing in English,
Brookner is arguably one of the most significant not yet to be
the subject of a full-length study; the present account is obviously
an attempt to fill this gap. The word 'arguably' in this context is
no mere rhetorical filler, since reactions to Brookner - positive or
negative - have often been outspoken. There are even signs of a
growing polarization among critics: whilst some voices continue
to make impressive claims for her strength and Originality, others
have become increasingly hostile or dismissive. Such trends are most
obvious in literary reviews, which make inevitably subjective but
frequently arbitrary evaluations of her novels, even as they wilfully
attempt to relate the novelist to other writers past and present.
In the most negative judgements, Brookner's nine novels of the
eighties have been castigated (and only occasionally commended)
for their 'minimalism'; they have also been more unreservedly
attacked for their formulaic quality, their weak sentimentality and
- more ominously - their close proximity to the conventions of
Harlequin romance. Scathing opinions have been delivered on both
sides of the Atlantic, although two of the most notorious attacks on
Brookner have been British and (predictably) male.
In a BBC radio discussion between Anthony Burgess and Gore
Vidal (Horizon, 9 November 1989), Burgess characterized the ideal
candidate for Britain's Booker Prize as being a 'minimalist' novel
dealing with 'menstrual cramps in a hotel in Switzerland', an
obvious reference to Brookner's Hotel du Lac. Such comments do not
perhaps qualify as literary criticism proper - their author seemed
unduly tired and emotional - but they nevertheless suggest an
emphatic male hostility towards a certain kind of 'woman's novel'.
An equally crude reaction to Brookner appeared in Peter Kemp's
hostile review of Lewis Percy under the heading, 'The mouse that
whinged' (Sunday Times, 27 August 1989). More detailed discussion
of Kemp's critical naivety is deferred to the appropriate place;
1