The Captive and the Free - Couverture souple

Cary, Joyce

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0140081968 ISBN 13 : 9780140081961

Editeur : Penguin Books Ltd, 1985

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

“There is no need to say that everyone who reads novels should read Joyce Cary’s last book, everyone will.”
Tribune

“The Captive and the Free emerges as one of Cary’s most serious and memorable books. This book confirms his stature as a writer of the highest moral intelligence.”
The Scotsman

“The grandeur of Cary’s vision cannot be denied. And in this book, written in such heroic circumstances, his grasp of technique is still astonishing.”
New Statesman

The power of mass persuasion, like all power, is a dangerous weapon.

The Rev. Walter Preedy, faith healer, has this power, and Hooper, ruthless journalist on the Morning Argus, is determined that nothing is going to stop him getting the full Preedy story.

Caught between the maniacal religious manipulation of Preedy and the equally invidious news-hounding of Hooper is Alice Rodker, seduced by Preedy as a child and now threatening to denounce him.

Lady Rideout, the newspaper magnate, needs Preedy not only to swell sales of her newspaper but also, she believes, to save her life.

Cary’s last novel examines the ability to make people believe, whether through bogus religious fervour or sensational mass-media, and shows that both have a great potential for evil.

Biographie de l'auteur :

Joyce Cary was born in 1888 into an old Anglo-Irish family and educated at Clifton. He studied art, first in Edinburgh and then in Paris, before going up to Trinity College, Oxford, in 1909 to read law. On coming down he served as a Red Cross orderly in the Balkan War of 1912-13, the inspiration for Memoir of the Bobotes, before joining the Nigerian Political Service.

He served in the Nigeria Regiment during the First World War, was wounded while fighting in the Cameroons, and returned to civil duty in Nigeria in 1917 as a district officer. His time in Africa provided the inspiration for his first four novels. Though he settled in Oxford as a full-time writer in 1920, it was not until 1932 that his first book was published. At the time of his death in 1957, he was recognised as one of the leading novelists in the world.

Cary is probably best known as a novelist and especially for Mister Johnson and ‘The First Triptych’ (Herself Surprised, To Be a Pilgrim and The Horse’s Mouth) in which the three main protagonists narrate their interlocking experiences and reveal their contrasting personalities. However he was also a fine short story writer, essayist and poet.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0140081968
• ISBN 13: 9780140081961
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 320