C. P. Snow, The Masters

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 1951

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Masters

(1951), a compelling account of the struggle to elect a new Master of a Cambridge college, is probably C. P. Snow’s best-known and most critically esteemed novel. It was the fourth book to be published in his “Strangers and Brothers” series and he placed it fifth when he rearranged the sequence for the 1972 omnibus edition. Within the series, it is the second of a “Cambridge” trilogy which starts with

The Light and the Dark

(1947) and ends with

The Affair

(1960).

The Masters

partly overlaps with

The Light and the Dark

, which covers the period 1934-43, but it is much more concentrated in terms of time, place and action, and its cast of characters is more exclusive. It spans one year, 1937, and confines itself wholly to Cambridge and mainly to key sites within a…

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2543 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Masters". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=204, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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