Beryl Bainbridge Summary

Having published ten novels in thirteen years, primarily to "tell her story," Beryl Bainbridge has good reason to view her literary career with satisfaction. An unassuming and deferential person, Bain... Read more

Critical Essay by Julia O'faolain Muting her technique to match her subject, [in "A Quiet Life" Beryl Bainbridge] works with the sly precision of a trap. Early on she plants a for... Read more

Critical Essay by James Brockway [It's] from Harriet said …, the first to be written, back in the Fifties, and eventually published … in 1972, that the Bainbridge oeuvre as we kno... Read more

Critical Essay by Edith Milton Beryl Bainbridge's A Quiet Life [is a success]. The quintessential family novel, its tiny world is confined to Mother, Father, and daughter Madge. It is son Alan ... Read more

Critical Essay by Edith Milton Macbeth's was perhaps the most memorable, but from the time of Hrothgar's, which lasted several nights, to the time of Gatsby's, which went on till ... Read more

Critical Essay by Blake Morrison Young Adolf is less of a success than its fascinating origins might have led us to suppose…. [By] forcing Adolf to suffer various Chaplinesque indignities, [Bai... Read more

Critical Essay by Neal Ascherson Beryl Bainbridge has written a great deal, with compassion and cunning, about the weak. Sometimes they are women, locked into some male-constructed paddock whose grass... Read more

Critical Essay by Gillian Wilce 'It was as if they had all been plucked up out of nowhere, and set down with the express purpose of being amusing or interesting or something, and they had all b... Read more

Critical Essay by John Naughton [In Another Part of the Wood] Ms Bainbridge uses a conventional device—a group holiday in deepest countryside—to collect a grotesque menagerie of creepies... Read more

Critical Essay by Patricia Beer Another Part of the Wood is a scorchingly brilliant study of a situation where the characters … state and blurt out much, and experience in their inner misgiving... Read more

Critical Essay by Betty Falkenberg Beryl Bainbridge's Another Part of the Wood is a small, precise study of small, insidious deceits—mainly self-deceits. But their triviality does not ba... Read more

Critical Essay by Karl Miller Beryl Bainbridge's books are commemorative. They are an attempt to save something from [the] flux. They are an attempt at preservation. [Harriet Said, is set outsi... Read more

Critical Essay by Paul Ableman After having read [Winter Garden] attentively, and yet without achieving total understanding, I went back and combed the text for vital clues. But they still eluded me&#... Read more

Critical Essay by Frank Kermode [Winter Garden] challenges the reader to catch clues to its tone, and also to what is actually supposed to be happening. It is, in fact, a bit baffling. The story is of... Read more

In the following excerpted review, Thubron contrasts Bainbridge's English Journey with J. B. Priestley's 1933 book of the same title. In the autumn of 1933 the British novelist and playw... Read more

In the following review, Clark offers tempered evaluation of Bainbridge's Collected Stories. Beryl Bainbridge is a prolific and highly accomplished writer, not simply in terms of the volume of ... Read more

In the following review, Gardam offers positive assessment of Every Man for Himself. Beryl Bainbridge's first novel in five years is a short, taut piece of historical fiction, an account of the... Read more

In the following excerpted review, Updike discusses the Titanic disaster and Bainbridge's fictional recreation of the tragedy in Every Man for Himself. The R.M.S. (Royal Mail Steamer) Titanic, ... Read more

In the following review, Heeger posts a positive assessment of Every Man for Himself. Its very name described its lordliness on the sea. So vast its passengers got lost on it, so strong it was thought... Read more

In the following review, Murtaugh offers favorable evaluation of Master Georgie. Beryl Bainbridge's Master Georgie pursues the interests and, to some extent, the methods of her two previous his... Read more

In the following review, Gallagher offers favorable assessment of Master Georgie. In this short, melancholy tale, British novelist Beryl Bainbridge all but reinvents the historical genre. Gone are mom... Read more

In the following review of Forever England, Lehmann-Haupt finds weakness in Bainbridge's generalizations, though interest in her autobiographic reminiscences. Considering the differences betwee... Read more

In the following excerpted review, Ingrams offers positive assessment of Forever England. Last year I took on the task of compiling an anthology about England, since when I have been delving around am... Read more

In the following review, Prose defends Bainbridge's work against demeaning critics and offers praise for An Awfully Big Adventure. Traditionally, the back of the book jacket is the venue for qu... Read more