Angus Wilson, As If By Magic

Marina MacKay (University of Durham)

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 1973

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Upper-middle-class Alexandra is Hamo's goddaughter, and, like him, is taking active advantage of the nineteen-sixties sexual revolution. A literature student at a new university when the novel opens, Alexandra is still experimenting naively with her relationships: she falls pregnant as the inevitable result of “natural union”. Having replicated what she thinks is D.H. Lawrence's Birkin-Ursula-Gerald constellation, she does not know which of the men in her three-way relationship is the baby's father, but she, Ned and Roddy embark happily on the hippy trail to India. Meanwhile, plant-geneticist Hamo is touring Asia on a mission to examine the results of his miraculous new high-yield crop, “Magic” rice, and, more importantly for him, to find beautiful youths: “perfection among the…

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474 words

Citation: MacKay, Marina. "As If By Magic". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6525, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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