Angus Wilson, The Wrong Set

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 1949

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

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This story collection caused a sensation when it first appeared; Edmund Wilson found himself hailing the next Evelyn Waugh. However complimentary the intention, it was perhaps misleading to liken Wilson's stories to Waugh's. The distinctive features are: an acute sensitivity to the nuances of social class, graphic descriptions of often-disgusting physical detail and an obsessive interest in fraud and self-deception. Wilson's fiction is far more cruel that Waugh's simply because his sense of telling detail is much more precise.

The story from which the collection gets its title is about a pianist, Vi, who scrapes a living in shabby clubs alongside her sleazy lover, discovers that her nephew, a student, has become involved in left wing politics. Notwithstanding her own precarious and

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504 words

Citation: MacKay, Marina. "The Wrong Set". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8238, accessed 04 May 2024.]

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