C. P. Snow, The Light and the Dark

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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…

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 09 October 2024.]

19406 The Light and the Dark 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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