Laura Del-Rivo, The Furnished Room

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 1961

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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The Furnished Room

(1961), the first novel of Laura Del-Rivo (b. 1934), combines a portrait of London bohemian life in the late 1950s, existential explorations, and a thriller element. It would be filmed two years later by Michael Winner (1935-2013) as

West 11

(1963), with a script by Willis Hall (1929-2005) and Keith Waterhouse (1929-2009). The surname of the novel’s anti-hero, Joseph Ignatius (known as Joe) Beckett, inevitably recalls an earlier novel of a misfit protagonist in the capital,

Murphy

(1938) by Samuel Beckett (1906-89). But

The Furnished Room

is not late-modernist in the

Murphy

mode. Structurally, it is a fairly straightforward third-person narrative, told from Beckett’s viewpoint, which proceeds chronologically, apart from occasional flashbacks to Beckett’s past. But…

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2635 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Furnished Room". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 July 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35040, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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