Livres - Bibliographie

A new interpretation of the nature of the eighteenth century's Anglo-French wars, focusing on those taken captive.

Edited by A.G. Bishop, with a foreword by Dame Helen Gardner. A substantial number of Cary's short expository prose, including several previously unpublished essays.

Except the Lord is the second novel in the second trilogy, or triptych to use Cary's preferred term. In his own words: 'In this second book we see where (Nimmo's) ideals took form. We are given his childhood as a poor boy, son of a horseman on a farm ... Left-wing ideas are truly called radical. They have very deep roots in Protestant religion. The book, therefore, is not about politics, it is about a child's reaction to poverty and social injustice, and the effect upon that reaction of a religious education. That is, it is a study of character, and so of that region of feeling and idea in which politics have their beginning and achieve their ends.' The literary critic, Walter Allen, wrote in his Reader's report for the original publisher, Michael Joseph, that 'within the limits' Cary had set himself, Except the Lord was 'completely successful and a very fine novel with several memorable characters of a dignity moving because of the austerity with which they are presented.' Except the Lord recounts in autobiographical form the early life of Chester Nimmo (based on Lloyd George) who became a great Radical leader in Edwardian days.

A story of conflict between ancient folkways and magic of Western Africa and the smug intellect of white colonists.

Johnson, a young native in the British civil service, is a clerk to Rudbeck, Assistant District Officer in Nigeria, and imagines himself to be a very important cog of the King's government. He is amusingly tolerant of his fellow Africans, thinking them uncivilized; he is obsessed with the idea of bringing "civilization" to this small jungle station. Johnson loves the white man's ways and cheerily adopts them; he has an enthusiasm that makes his boss Rudbeck overlook his rather vague office talents. This enthusiasm centers especially upon the construction of a road (symbol of civilization) and when Rudbeck has difficulty in getting funds from HQ, Johnson does some manipulation with the books. His peculiar sense of bookkeeping, together with his disdain for regulations, lands him in trouble. He gets the road built but is discharged. In despair and anger at being fired by his "good friend" Rudbeck, he gets drunk, and accidentally kills a white store owner. He is condemned to death. Rudbeck tries to save him, but "justice" cannot be reversed. Johnson is caught between two cultures, belonging no more to the new Africa than to the old. He begs Rudbeck, whom he looks upon as a father, to shoot him rather than let him be hanged by a stranger. Rudbeck, seeing him for the first time as an individual, grants this last request and ends the boy's life.

“A most convincing, exciting and disturbing story.”

The Observer

“Written with a detachment, and a refusal to take sides which make it doubly impressive.”

The Spectator

“He writes so well, with such a fine understanding.”

Daily Telegraph

The first of Joyce Cary’s African novels.

Aissa, a frank and lively Fulani girl, lives in the district of Yanrin, Nigeria. A new and ardent convert to Christianity, she is feared and mistrusted by the local community who brand her a witch.

Yanrun is suffering a severe and prolonged drought and rioting breaks out between the different religious communities over whose God has the power to bring rain.

Aissa is torn between her Christian faith and deep respect for her people and their ways. The clash is finally resolved in a moment of great passion, sacrifice and triumph.

Marie, a well-meaning but naive American anthropologist, believes she has found Heaven in the forests of Nigeria; but her belief is challenged as white prospectors stake claims within the territory of the Birri tribespeople, who become increasingly enraged by the colonists' betrayal.

Joyce Cary wrote two trilogies, or triptychs as he later preferred to call them. The first comprises: Herself Surprised, To Be a Pilgrim and The Horse's Mouth. In the months before his death, Tom Wilcher, who is looked after by his niece and nephew (both concerned for their inheritance), lives his life over again in the house in which his childhood was spent. The religious family life of his youth is contrasted with the rootlessness of his heirs. The character of the old man is seen through his attitude to his family and the way in which he tries to make them feel the value of a family tradition. 'A remarkable novel ... An original attempt to embody a complete vision of life, and it contains scenes as vivid and beautiful as anything else in modern fiction.' The Listener 'Its excellence lies in the great skill with which a character is drawn in all its variety, in the minor portraits of members of his family, with their subsidiary stories, and in the unhesitating and illuminating detail of half a century of English life.' Observer

The protagonist, Charley Brown, is a lively, inventive boy who, as a stranger (an evacuee in the early days of the Second World War), is beset by constant challenges, hostility and complications. One of his first deeds is to let loose the local bull. Boys who one minute had taunted him with the refrain 'Ballocky baldy' (Charley's lice had been evacuated from London with him), were the next minute acknowledging him as their natural leader. Charley Brown, one of Joyce Cary's most memorable creations, is a figure of contrasts, aesthete and delinquent, leading his gang into daring acts both grand and bad. As his sweetheart, Lizzie Galor rightly puts it, he's every bit as good as the movies . . . On first publication it was praised as 'a brilliant story' (News Chronicle), a 'patient and penetrating analysis of children's minds' (The Times), and as 'splendid entertainment as well as an electrifying revelation of the young idea' (Observer).

Some of the stories in this collection - such as Wells's The Country of the Blind and Joyce's The Dead - are classics; others - like Dickens's The Signalman and Lawrence's Fanny and Annie - are less well know. But all of them - whether funny, tragic, wry or fantastic - show their authors at their concise best. Which makes this representative collection, at the very least, ferociously entertaining.