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The Living and the Dead

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Living and the Dead explores the tension between hesitation and bold change through the lives of the Standish family in 1930s London. Mrs Standish, still beautiful despite her age, engages in secretive relationships, while her daughter Eden embraces left-wing politics and spontaneous love affairs. Their son Elyot observes quietly until life’s upheavals prompt his awakening to self-understanding.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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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?

Ideal for readers interested in classic British fiction that delves into family dynamics and personal transformation during the early twentieth century.

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To hesitate on the edge of life or to plunge in and risk change -this is the dilemma explored in THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. Mrs Standish, ageing but still beautiful, is drawn into secret liaisons, while her daughter Eden experiments openly and impulsively with left-wing politics and love affairs.

Author won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

To hesitate on the edge of life or to plunge in and risk change—this is the dilemma explored in The Living and the Dead. Patrick White's second novel is set in thirties London and portrays the complex ebb and flow of relationships within the Standish family.

Mrs Standish, ageing but still beautiful, is drawn into secret liaisons, while her daughter Eden experiments openly and impulsively with left-wing politics and love affairs. Only the son, Elyot, remains an aloof and scholarly observer—until dramatic events shock him into sudden self-knowledge.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780099324317

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 September 1996

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 257g

Pages: 368

About the Author

Patrick White was born in England in 1912 and taken to Australia, where his father owned a sheep farm, when he was six months old. He was educated in England at Cheltenham college and King's College, Cambridge. He settled in London, where he wrote several unpublished novels, then served in the RAF during the war. He returned to Australia after the war. He became the most considerable figure in modern Australian literature, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1973. The great poet of Australian landscape, he turned its vast empty spaces into great mythic landscapes of the soul. His position as a man of letters was controversial, provoked by his acerbic, unpredictable public statements and his belief that it is eccentric individuals who offer the only hope of salvation. He died in September 1990.

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