(1973), the fifth published novel by David Storey (1933-2017) was, like its predecessor

(1972), another fragment of “the definitive postwar British novel” on which he had worked for five years prior to his emergence as a playwright, but which he had not completed (“Introduction”,

, x). The novel runs to 249 pages in the original hardback, almost fifty pages longer than

. Whereas

was told in the third person from its title character’s point of view,

the protagonist of

, Colin Freestone, is also the novel’s first-person narrator, like Arthur Machin in

(1960) and Margaret Thorpe in

(1960). Colin shares his first name with Pasmore, however, perhaps implying that he is, to an…

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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "A Temporary Life". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 May 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41630, accessed 27 July 2024.]