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Little Wilson and Big God
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Little Wilson and Big God
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This memoir will appeal to readers interested in literary biographies, especially those fascinated by mid-20th-century British writers and complex personal histories. Fans of Burgess's novels will appreciate the insight into his formative years.
These are Anthony Burgess's candid confessions: he was seduced at the age of nine by an older woman; Little Wilson and Big God moves from Moss Side to Malaya recalling Burgess's time as an education officer in the tropics, his tempestuous first marriage, his struggles with Catholicism and the beginning of his prolific writing life.
A high spirited candid book of confessions from the twentieth century literary giant Anthony Burgess
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Description
Little Wilson and Big God, the first part of Anthony Burgess's two-volume autobiography, tells the story of a disaffected Manchester Catholic from his birth in 1917 up to the commencement, in 1959, of his career as a professional writer.
Born Jack Wilson, the son of Catholic Irish and Lancashire parents, Burgess grew up in one of the toughest areas of Manchester, with a burgeoning awareness of an artistic talent which for a long time could not find its proper outlet. It deals also with an unending struggle to reconcile a Catholic conscience with the prematurely discovered pleasures of sex.
It details his tempestuous first marriage, an army career more comic than heroic, and his years as an education officer in Malaya and Borneo. It was in the Far East, at the age of thirty-seven, his marriage in trouble, drinking heavily, that Burgess began to write the first of the novels that were to make his name.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Sebastian Faulks praises the book as "packed, provocative and masterly." The LA Times notes its "terrific pace and vivacity," likening it to Burgess's finest novels and calling it the tale of a modern 'Unlucky Jim.'
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780099437055
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 03 October 2002
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage Classics
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 30.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 334g
Pages: 480
About the Author
Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917 and educated at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He served in the British army from 1940 to 1946 and was a schoolteacher in England before becoming a colonial education officer in 1954. His Malayan trilogy of novels and a history of English literature were published while he was living in Malaya and Brunei. He became a full-time writer in 1959 and achieved a worldwide reputation as one of the most versatile novelists of his day. His writings include biographies of Shakespeare and Hemingway, critical studies of James Joyce, stage plays, and two volumes of autobiography. His work as a composer and librettist includes the Broadway musical, Cyrano, and Blooms of Dublin, an operetta based on Joyce's Ulysses. His 33 novels continue to be published all over the world. They include A Clockwork Orange, Nothing Like the Sun, The Complete Enderby, Earthly Powers, Napoleon Symphony, and Beard's Roman Women, a collaboration with the photographer David Robinson. Anthony Burgess died in London in 1993.
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