Brigid Brophy Summary

"Professors, psychologists, the frenzied do-gooders and the jangling drop-outs make divergent proclamations," wrote Donald Zec in the Daily Mirror in the autumn of 1968. "But all of them, the swingers... Read more

Critical Essay by Joseph Wood Krutch One expects the fantasy-with-a-moral to be written by a mature sage like Voltaire, Samuel Johnson, or Anatole France…. Nevertheless, it will have to be admi... Read more

Critical Essay by Barbara Schiller As in her previous books, Brigid Brophy has written a self-assured, spirited and elegant novel ["Flesh"], gleaming with perverse wit and classic style.... Read more

Critical Essay by Jeremy Treglown [Palace without Chairs] starts as a what's-going-on, develops into a what's-it-all-about and ends as a so-what. It's a modishly fanciful piece ab... Read more

Critical Essay by Josh Rubins [Palace Without Chairs is] another of Brigid Brophy's "baroque" fictions—baroque in its droll verbal tap-dancing … and in its contrapun... Read more

In the review below, Annan praises the satiric tone of Palace without Chairs. The crown prince's name is Ulrich; his brothers, the archdukes, are called Balthasar, Sempronius, and Urban; the yo... Read more

In the following review, Byatt calls Baroque 'n' Roll "a celebration of life and thought." The English perceive Brigid Brophy as a maverick. They do not know where to have ... Read more

In the following essay, Stevenson discusses parallels between Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of language and In Transit, focusing on the connections the novel makes between the mutability of language... Read more

In the following essay, Moore provides an overview of Brophy's literary career. There was a time, in the sixties and early seventies, when no one needed an introduction to Brigid Brophy. She wa... Read more

In the following essay, Smith examines the latent homosexuality and postponed heterosexuality in The King of a Rainy Country, relating these themes to various narrative plot conventions that structure... Read more

In the mixed review below, Brooks suggests that Black Ship to Hell "might have been [better if Miss Brophy had not tried to cover quite so much ground."] [Black Ship to Hell] is a vast, ... Read more

In the following review, the critic asserts that Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without "is little more than a compendium of flaunted smartness." Brigid Brophy has won her... Read more

In the review below, the critic admires The Adventures of God in His Search for the Black Girl, but dislikes Brophy's "ostentatious" display of her own erudition and "verba... Read more

In the following interview conducted on July 17, 1975, Brophy discusses her early career, the influence of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, Ronald Firbank, and Mozart on her works, her position as a fem... Read more

Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement The Crown Princess is a book of six stories by a write still in her early twenties. The best of them show exceptional acuteness Brigid (Antonia) Brophy ... Read more

Critical Essay by Naomi Bliven Brigid Brophy's first novel, "Hackenfeller's Ape," published in the United States in 1954, was a high-spirited comedy constructed on three th... Read more

Critical Essay by Anthony Burgess Many authors are embarrassed about letting their random journalistic writings be gathered into a book, though the embarrassment is much mitigated by the need for mone... Read more

Critical Essay by Anthony Burgess This deplorable little work [Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without] has been duly deplored in the literary reviews and the "class" paper... Read more

Critical Essay by Edward Weeks Brigid Brophy, her husband, Michael Levey, and Charles Osborne have concocted what the English would call "a wicked book," Fifty Works of English Literatur... Read more

Critical Essay by Time Brigid Brophy, the Irish controversialist, classics scholar, champion of animal rights and vegetarian, continues her war on the 20th century. In Transit, her sixth novel, takes ... Read more

Critical Essay by Hermione Lee Clever, inventive and assured though ['Hackenfeller's Ape,' 'Flesh,' and 'The Snow Ball'] are, they now, 15 or 20 years ... Read more

Critical Essay by Marilyn Butler The Prince and the Wild Geese is a story of 1832 told in words and pictures, the words almost all Brigid Brophy's, the pictures by Prince Grégoire Gagari... Read more

Critical Essay by Dan Wickenden Beyond the haunting title of Brigid Brophy's second novel lies a tale as strange and original as the one she told three years ago in "Hackenfeller'... Read more

Critical Essay by Maurice Richardson This huge rambling essay in applied psychoanalysis [Black Ship to Hell] takes the form—in so far as it takes any form at all—of a random meditation o... Read more

Critical Essay by Joseph L. Quinn In Flesh and Hackenfeller's Ape Brigid Brophy established herself as a very intelligent, very assured, and very capable writer of fiction, much on the order of... Read more