Not Honour More: A Polyphoto of the Fifties - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571252737 ISBN 13: 9780571252732

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Synopsis

Not Honour More is the third novel in the second trilogy, or triptych to use Cary's preferred term. The first two are The Prisoner of Grace and Except the Lord, in that order. All are reissued in Faber Finds. The central character remains Chester Nimmo (based on Lloyd George) but this time he is seen from the point of view of Captain Jim Latter, Nina Nimmo's first love and second husband. In Prisoner of Grace Joyce Cary brilliantly recreated he great political events in the first years of the twentieth-century leading up to the Great War: in Not Honour More he no less brilliantly recreates the bewildering days of the General Strike of 1926. In his Reader's report, the literary critic, Walter Allen wrote, 'I think this is splendid. It rounds off the trilogy beautifully, and is as thoroughly unexpected as Except the Lord was. Moreover, by bringing in the third member of the triangle as spokesman it brings in too, in full force and voice as it were, a type of man the author had not presented nearly as fully anywhere in his work before. If Chester Nimmo is the God-intoxicated man, Jim Latter, who tells the story of this novel, may be regarded as his opposite: the man who has no use for inspiration or intuition but proceeds according to his sense of duty and justice, the archetype one might suppose of the soldier. He seems to me as brilliantly rendered, in the very tones of his speaking and syntax, as any personage Cary has presented in the first person. He is utterly convincing ...'

About this title

About the Author:

In the words of his biographer, Alan Bishop, Joyce Cary (1888-1957) was 'a prolific, independent, wide-ranging writer with a place in three literatures (English, Irish, Nigerian) difficult to categorize because his writing integrates the traditional and experimental.' He was difficult to categorize which probably explains why his reputation is not more secure. However he was undoubtedly a major novelist of the twentieth century, and in acknowledgement of that Faber Finds is reissuing twelve of his works - Mister Johnson, Herself Surprised, To Be a Pilgrim, The Horse's Mouth, A Prisoner of Grace, Except the Lord, Not Honour More, Castle Corner, Charley is My Darling, A House of Children, The Moonlight and A Fearful Joy. The Horse's Mouth remains Joyce Cary's most famous novel but this extensive reissue programme will demonstrate to readers this is only one of many equally successful, challenging but entertaining works in his canon.Although never fashionable, Joyce Cary has always had his admirers:'This novelist has exemplified the rule that when a writer dies, he or she may suffer a lapse in attention. You say to someone "Joyce Cary" and they say "Who?". Amazing! He was a marvellous writer, fresh, funny and popping with life.' Doris Lessing'A splendid writer' John Updike'Whenever I am idle I choose a Cary novel in the way that I might seek a friend's company, and it is not long before I am encouraged, inspired to write.' Paul Theroux'To find a novelist who saw more deeply and conveyed more truly you have to go back to Dostoievsky and Tolstoy, Balzac and Goethe, Mann and Hesse ... What makes him a life enhancer is the overwhelming sense the reader gets from him that the universe, for all its horrors and inexplicabilities, makes sense - obvious and glorious sense.' Bernard Levin

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• ISBN 10: 0571252737
• ISBN 13: 9780571252732
• Binding: Paperback