- Paperback: 284 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber (16 July 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571252869
- ISBN-13: 978-0571252862
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,269,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
'Nobody is better than Francis King at handling loving but uncertain relationships, and at illuminating the spaces between people.' Alan Massie
When her husband, an Indian civil servant, dies on his way to take up a new and important post, Christine Cornwell is left with a son and daughter, and a small pension on which to support them.
A woman of unusual toughness and resilience, she adapts herself quickly to the difficulties of her new life as a widow in England in the mid-1930s; to the war; and, finally, to the mutilation of her son, a bomber pilot. But her resources begin to fail her when, after the war, she feels herself cast aside and isolated.
But, with a wonderful mixture of shrewdness and compassion, Christine has the depths of character to enable her to find a solution to this challenging situation.
The Widow is a classic of post-war British fiction.
About the Author
Born in Switzerland, Francis King spent his childhood in India. Whilst at Oxford he wrote three novels and then joined the British Council. He was the drama critic of the Sunday Telegraph and reviewed fiction extensively. He wrote over twenty novels and his non-fiction includes E. M. Forster and his World.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This early masterpiece has many features that have characterised much of Francis King's prolific and far-ranging writing from the 1950s to the early 21st century: the unflinching dissection of people's motives; the multifarious configurations of desire, love and sexuality; an assured portrayal of contrasting cultural and social worlds and periods; and a deeply felt yet sparingly sentimental depiction of courage in the face of ageing, ill-health, and mortality.
Quite apart from being an excellent read in terms of character and plot, the novel gives a thoroughly convincing glimpse into the diverse worlds of the family of a mid-ranking British administrator in pre-World War II India, and their return to the harsh realities of pre-war and wartime London on his untimely death. His widow rises to these challenges with a poignant bravery that she is at pains to conceal from her children as they embark on their difficult early adulthood in the blitz and bleak postwar London.
Despite the novel's distance from our own time and world, anyone who has watched a mother come to terms with the loss of her husband and then put all her efforts (welcome or unwelcome!) into raising her children, should be deeply moved to sympathy and admiration by this book.
Quite apart from being an excellent read in terms of character and plot, the novel gives a thoroughly convincing glimpse into the diverse worlds of the family of a mid-ranking British administrator in pre-World War II India, and their return to the harsh realities of pre-war and wartime London on his untimely death. His widow rises to these challenges with a poignant bravery that she is at pains to conceal from her children as they embark on their difficult early adulthood in the blitz and bleak postwar London.
Despite the novel's distance from our own time and world, anyone who has watched a mother come to terms with the loss of her husband and then put all her efforts (welcome or unwelcome!) into raising her children, should be deeply moved to sympathy and admiration by this book.
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