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Synopsis
Still haunted by his love for Rose, who had married another man and later, died, Charley Summers becomes obsessed with the idea that Rose's half sister is really his beloved
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About the Author
Henry Green was the pen-name of Henry Yorke, the son of a prosperous Midlands family with aristocratic roots. He was born in 1905 near Tewkesbury and was educated at Eton and Oxford. He entered the family business—producing beer-bottling machines—on the factory floor, and went on to run the firm while writing novels in his spare time. He is the author of Pack My Bag, a memoir, and nine novels including Blindness, Nothing, and Doting. Green died in 1973.
Review
First published in England in 1946, this takes its place with his other titles- Loving, Nothing, etc. Full of air and fluff and rose light, and sometimes more serious too, Back is about Charley Summers- a very quiet man who returns from war and a German prison camp with a couple of strikes against him; his lady love Rose is dead and he now has a peg leg. Set for the most part in a suburb and in an office in London, Charley tries to adjust to a Roseless world- a world which insists on being diffused with rose colors, rose words and horrid rose puns. Dead Rose devours him on the one hand and government contracts (he deals in parabolam, bird droppings, needle valves, etc.) on the other, and one day he meets what he supposes to be Rose. Actually she is Nance, Rose's half-sister-through a misdemeanor on Rose's father's part. There are unholy coincidences scattered throughout which give the impression that this Henry Green world is a wild, unsafe, but haphazardly genteel place to live. The skillful coupling of love talk and office terminology, the dexterous handling of characters who seem at first glance to be picked bone clean but who turn into cream, and the view of a world just a little off center make Back a delightful, wispy and original experience. For his established audience.—Kirkus Reviews
"Green belongs to the mad tradition in English literature—Sterne, Carroll, Firbank, and Mrs. Woolf." --V. S. Pritchett
"Nobody writes novels quite like Henry Green . . . His characters . . . dance to a tune of his own as precise and stylized as a sonata."—New York Herald Tribune
"The best writer of his time." --Rebecca West
"Green's books remain solid and glittering as gems." --Anthony Burgess
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherNew Directions
- Publication date1981
- ISBN 10 0811207986
- ISBN 13 9780811207980
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages246
- Rating
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Back
Published by
Norton & Company Limited, W. W., 1981
ISBN 10: 0811207986
ISBN 13: 9780811207980
Used
Softcover
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Reprint. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 5108058-6
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Back
Published by
Norton & Company Limited, W. W., 1981
ISBN 10: 0811207986
ISBN 13: 9780811207980
Used
Softcover
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Reprint. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 39222417-6
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
Back
Published by
New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1981
ISBN 10: 0811207986
ISBN 13: 9780811207980
Used
Paperback
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.65. Seller Inventory # G0811207986I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
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Back
Seller: Arundel Books, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Trade Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" A very good copy. Spine leaning a bit. Light wear to wraps curling a bit at corners with pages. Light soiling to page edges. Ink mark to bottom of textblock. Seller Inventory # 0481145
Quantity: 1 available
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Seller: Priceless Books, Urbana, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Good. 246pp. Covers & edges lightly rubbed & soiled; owner name half-title. Good reading copy. Seller Inventory # 250713
Quantity: 1 available
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Seller: SuzyQBooks, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Scuff mark on bottom edge. Seller Inventory # 023508
Quantity: 1 available
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Seller: Blue Leaf Books, Winona, MN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. New Directions 1974 trade softcover. Faint fading to cover. Pages clean. Binding tight. Seller Inventory # 9508
Quantity: 1 available
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Back
Published by
New Directions April 1981, 1981
ISBN 10: 0811207986
ISBN 13: 9780811207980
Used
Trade Paperback
Seller: Pelican Bay Books, Anacortes, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Trade Paperback. Condition: Good. Seller Inventory # 233434
Quantity: 1 available
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Seller: Remarks Used Books, Pittsfield, MA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Fine. NDP517. Second Printing, a Revived Modern Classic. Bright, clean & tight copy, unread, in FINE condition. "The compassionate yet detached regard that is Henry Green's hallmark is especially apparent in his gentle novel BACK. We first meet Charley Summers in the rose-covered graveyard of a London suburb. World War II continues, while Charley hobbles along on a peg leg 'for not noticing the gun beneath a rose.' He is searching despondently for the grave of his love, who died while he was away and whose name, 'of all names was Rose.' [] This wry, modern romance of the rose is fractured by bomb alerts, and the wary hero has sickened not so much from love as from shell shock. He spends his days doggedly recording orders for an engineering plant that lost its factory in the blitz and his evenings in desultory conversation with his landlady. His few friendships--with a philandering fellow amputee, with Rose's shrewd but kindly husband and her ailing parents, the Grants--survive mainly for old time's sake. But when Mr. Grant puts Charley in touch with Rose's half sister, the young man becomes obsessed with the delusion that she is really Rose, alive but disguised, and all his lurking energies are mobilized in attempts to make her share his version of reality." [publisher copy] ". . . a rich, touching story flecked all over by Mr. Green's intuition of the concealed originality of ordinary human beings."--V.S. Pritchett, The New York Times. "Green questions what it could mean to come 'back' from a war that hasn't ended in reality or memory. In this quick and engrossing novel, Green reveals that living and loving are more about embracing failures and making frequent recalibrations than striving toward unattainable ideals. . . The skillful coupling of love talk and office terminology, the dexterous handling of characters who seem at first glance to be picked bone clean but who turn into cream, and the view of a world just a little off center make BACK a delightful, wispy and original experience."--Kirkus Reviews. Pristine paperback w/brilliant corners & crisp edges, a square & tight binding w/no creases in spine; the actual book cover features a b&w photograph of a British country graveyard. Quite presentable. Seller Inventory # RUB3057
Quantity: 1 available