Alan Paton Summary

Alan Stewart Paton (1903-1988) was a South African writer and liberal leader. His novel Cry, The Beloved Country won him world acclaim for the insights it gave on South Africa's race problem.Alan Stew... Read more

Alan Paton was one of South Africa's best-known novelists, as well as a reputable poet, biographer, politician, prison reformer, and thinker. Following the publication of his first novel, Cry, the Bel... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert L. Berner Knocking on the Door is a collection of short pieces written between 1923 and 1974 and hitherto unpublished or otherwise inaccessible. The chronological arrangement ... Read more

In the following essay, Hooper investigates the function and effects of Stephanie's "silence" in Too Late the Phalarope. In every story there is a silence, some sight concealed, ... Read more

Below, Thompson explains how Too Late the Phalarope manifests universality despite the contemporary relevance of the novel's historical aspects. Instead of entitling this essay as I have done, ... Read more

In the review below, Romano celebrates the classical emphasis on human truths and values of Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful. Alan Paton's first novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, is one of the few... Read more

Below, Watts discusses the classical, epic, psychological, and religious dimensions of Too Late the Phalarope. The role of the White South African novelist is often assumed by outsiders to be primaril... Read more

Critical Essay by John Romano "Ah, But Your Land Is Beautiful" shows no slackening of either [Paton's] hope or his realism. This novel is as vigorously and as exquisitely written ... Read more

Critical Essay by Sheridan Baker Too Late the Phalarope invites us to think of Alan Paton more simply as a novelist than as a kind of Christian plenipotentiary to South Africa. Not that Cry the Belove... Read more

Critical Essay by Nadine Gordimer In terms of tragedy as the rest of the world knows it, there is a tragedy in Alan Paton's Too Late the Phalarope—the private tragedy of a man of fine in... Read more

Critical Essay by Edmund Fuller Much has been published recently about the decline of tragedy, and the question has been asked whether tragedy can be written in this age. Offstage, during the discussi... Read more

Critical Essay by Anthony Delius "I have been a teacher all my life", says the now septuagenarian Alan Paton in his absorbing Towards the Mountain…. However, if after … muc... Read more