{"product_id":"barbara-comyns-a-savage-innocence-hardcover","title":"Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAvril Horner\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis biography of Barbara Comyns presents a twentieth-century author whose life was as extraordinary as her novels. Hundreds of unpublished letters reveal an occasionally desperate but resourceful and witty woman whose complicated life ranged from enduring poverty when young to mixing with spivs, spies and high society.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe extraordinary twentieth-century writer Barbara Comyns led a life as captivating as the narratives she spun. This pioneering biography reveals the journey of a woman who experienced hardship and single-motherhood before the age of thirty but went on to publish a sequence of novels that are unique in the English language. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eComyns turned her hand to many jobs in order to survive, from artist's model to restoring pianos. Hundreds of unpublished letters reveal an occasionally desperate but resourceful and witty woman whose complicated life ranged from enduring poverty when young to mixing with spivs, spies and high society. While working as a housekeeper in her mid-thirties, Comyns began transforming the bleak episodes of her life into compelling fictions streaked with surrealism and deadpan humour. The Vet's Daughter (1959), championed by Graham Greene, brought her fame, although her use of the gothic and macabre divided readers and reviewers. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis biography not only excavates Comyns's life but also reclaims her fiction, providing a timely reassessment of her literary contribution. It sheds new light on a remarkable author who deftly captured the complexities of human life.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAvril Horner is an Emeritus Professor of English at Kingston University. She is the author or editor of numerous books, most recently Women and the Gothic with Sue Zlosnik (2016) and Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch 1934-95 with Anne Rowe (2015).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 372\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.06 x 9.21 x 6.14 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 19, 2024\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51748952604960,"sku":"9781526173744","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/6bcdef35c22ad082b53a5d6d4be509d1.webp?v=1779921120","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/barbara-comyns-a-savage-innocence-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}