C. P. Snow, The Light and the Dark

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1947

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Light and the Dark

(1947) focuses on Roy Calvert, a young, brilliant, wealthy and attractive scholar of Oriental languages whose recurrent bouts of melancholy eventually lead him to court death as a World War Two bomber pilot. Originally published second in the “Strangers and Brothers” series, it was placed fourth when Snow rearranged the sequence for the 1972 omnibus edition. Lewis Eliot is the first-person narrator, as in all the “Strangers and Brothers” novels; but Calvert is the main protagonist. With the second and third novels of the sequence,

George Passant

(originally published as

Strangers and Brothers

, 1940) and

The Conscience of the Rich

(1958),

The Light and the Dark

forms a trio of studies of talented men who, because of the “interplay” of the “essence [of…

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1722 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Light and the Dark". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19406, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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