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The Dividing Stream
In Florence on business, Max Westfield has brought his wife and children with him to make a holiday of it. But while shrewdly perceptive in financial matters, Max is completely blind to the passions and tragedies that soon begin to surround him. His wife despises him and is brazenly having an affair with a cynical expatriate, his secretary wants to be his mistress and dreams of accompanying him back to England, and his teenage son has fallen in love with a working-class Italian youth. With what Paul Binding calls his "darkly penetrative vision of existence," Francis King weaves these narrative threads into a complex and gripping story of isolation, despair, and death beneath the intense glare of the Tuscan sun.
Francis King (1923-2011) received favourable reviews for his first three novels, but it was his fourth, The Dividing Stream (1951), winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, that secured his international reputation as one of the foremost young writers of his generation. This edition, the first in more than 60 years, includes a new introduction by novelist and critic Paul Binding and a reproduction of the original dust jacket art by Leslie Wood.
Francis King (1923-2011) received favourable reviews for his first three novels, but it was his fourth, The Dividing Stream (1951), winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, that secured his international reputation as one of the foremost young writers of his generation. This edition, the first in more than 60 years, includes a new introduction by novelist and critic Paul Binding and a reproduction of the original dust jacket art by Leslie Wood.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
54 people want to read
About the author
Francis King
78 books18 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
Francis Henry King, CBE, was a British novelist, poet and short story writer.
He was born in Adelboden, Switzerland, brought up in India and educated at Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War II he was a conscientious objector, and left Oxford to work on the land. After completing his degree in 1949 he worked for the British Council; he was posted around Europe, and then in Kyoto. He resigned to write full time in 1964.
He was a past winner of the W. Somerset Maugham Prize for his novel The Dividing Stream (1951) and also won the Katherine Mansfield Short Story Prize. A President Emeritus of International PEN and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1979 and a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1985.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 22, 2025
The Dividing stream is Francis King's third novel, written when he was in his twenties and as close to a masterpiece as anyone can desire. That it is back in print thanks to Valancourt Books is to be applauded but that it was unavailable and pretty much forgotten for so long is a scandal. I am not going to again repeat my paeans of praise to King as a writer, suffice is to say that The Dividing Stream should be on every creative writing course in the same way Bach's Well Tempered Clavier is for piano students. That the social, economic, cultural norms that underpin this 1951 novel are lost is as irrelevant as the passing out of memory of Jane Austen's parsonages and Charles Dickens's London. That King conjures up post war Florence in fiction with all the brilliance of Norman Lewis brought to his memoir of wartime Naples should come as no surprise to anyone. King throughout his oeuvre was a master of place and time. But like Lewis in Naples he uses the particular to create the universal. His portrayal of the interaction of the wealthy British tourists with the native Florentines is a sharp, penetrating and brilliant portrayal of human character and foibles. How many novels published in the UK in 1951 are still not only worth reading but are compulsively readable? (please see my footnote below at *1).
If you want to know what happens in The Dividing Stream there is an excellent synopsis at Valancourt Books but then the story is only part of this novel's strength. If you read the synopsis you might be surprised I have not shelved it under my 'queer-interest' heading. There is, to borrow another's phrase, an incredibly strong 'allusively homoerotic' leitmotif in this as in many of King's early novels. Certainly as a teenager searching for 'queer' books in the 1970's I would have understood exactly what the novel wasn't saying explicitly (unfortunately I did not read it then). But whether it should be explicitly seen and read as a proto gay or queer novel I am not so sure. Such defining tends to overwhelm the complexity and subtlety of novels like this. It is so much more than an early, 'allusively homoerotic' proto gay novel. King writes gay/queer characters, situations and feelings into many of his early novels (post his 1970 novel 'A Domestic Animal' King would increasingly be direct rather then allusive) but always as part of the whole of life, never separate or different. In many ways he was way ahead of the times in the way he treated the subject so my failure to shelve this novel as of queer-interest may be doing him an unfairness.
But the important thing is to read this wonderful novel. King is a superb writer, a joy to read and I will eventually read all his many novels and probably purchase them as well.
*1 Wikipedia has a list of 62 novels published in the UK in 1951, needless to say Francis King's 'The Dividing Stream' is not one of them and although there are gems (including two novels by Alfred Duggan; The End of the Affair by Graham Greene and novels by John Wyndham and Arthur C. Clarke) the majority are dross. I am not going to hold my breath waiting for a revival of Howard Spring, Hammond Innes or Rosemary Sutcliff - and believe me I could have picked even more forgotten authors without any effort.
If you want to know what happens in The Dividing Stream there is an excellent synopsis at Valancourt Books but then the story is only part of this novel's strength. If you read the synopsis you might be surprised I have not shelved it under my 'queer-interest' heading. There is, to borrow another's phrase, an incredibly strong 'allusively homoerotic' leitmotif in this as in many of King's early novels. Certainly as a teenager searching for 'queer' books in the 1970's I would have understood exactly what the novel wasn't saying explicitly (unfortunately I did not read it then). But whether it should be explicitly seen and read as a proto gay or queer novel I am not so sure. Such defining tends to overwhelm the complexity and subtlety of novels like this. It is so much more than an early, 'allusively homoerotic' proto gay novel. King writes gay/queer characters, situations and feelings into many of his early novels (post his 1970 novel 'A Domestic Animal' King would increasingly be direct rather then allusive) but always as part of the whole of life, never separate or different. In many ways he was way ahead of the times in the way he treated the subject so my failure to shelve this novel as of queer-interest may be doing him an unfairness.
But the important thing is to read this wonderful novel. King is a superb writer, a joy to read and I will eventually read all his many novels and probably purchase them as well.
*1 Wikipedia has a list of 62 novels published in the UK in 1951, needless to say Francis King's 'The Dividing Stream' is not one of them and although there are gems (including two novels by Alfred Duggan; The End of the Affair by Graham Greene and novels by John Wyndham and Arthur C. Clarke) the majority are dross. I am not going to hold my breath waiting for a revival of Howard Spring, Hammond Innes or Rosemary Sutcliff - and believe me I could have picked even more forgotten authors without any effort.
April 21, 2024
The 31st of King's novels for me to read; his 4th, published in 1951, when King was only 29.
Not to mince words - a flat-out masterpiece, and probably the pinnacle of King's prodigious efforts. Winner of the prestigious W. Somerset Maugham Award, it resembles that master's works in some aspects, but I also kept thinking its spiritual progenitor was more likely Forster's A Room with a View - both set in Florence, although taking place a good 50 years apart.
King knew Forster, and actually published an illustrated mini-biography about him (E. M. Forster and His World, and I think it quite possible that he wanted to show how things had and hadn't changed since that classic. King was stationed in Florence for 18 months right after the war, working and teaching for the British Council, and he brings all of that experience of a foreigner abroad to his sprawling canvas.
One of the notable things about King is that ALL of his characters are sketched in great detail; here, almost two dozen major and minor characters come to life so vividly that one can picture them completely - to extend the Room comparison, it's like a lost Merchant-Ivory film come to life before your eyes. Max Westfield, rich American businessman on holiday with his blended family, is the still center around which all the action revolves, but as Paul Binding makes clear in his informative Introduction, he remains a cipher and the character we wind up knowing least about.
Perhaps the most fascinating character is Max's 14-year-old son, Colin - who becomes infatuated with Enzo, an older Italian youth. Writing 6 years before the Wolfenden Report advocated decriminalization of homosexuality in England (and another decade before that would eventually take effect), King had to carefully let the reader know what is inspiring Colin's fascination, while still heavily coding such - it's an amazing tightrope walk.
But all of the characters are intriguing, and the propulsive and exquisite prose are simply unbeatable. It's nothing short of a crime that only 7 people have rated this here - Valencourt has reprinted the book in a sumptuous edition - and it should have many, many more readers.
Not to mince words - a flat-out masterpiece, and probably the pinnacle of King's prodigious efforts. Winner of the prestigious W. Somerset Maugham Award, it resembles that master's works in some aspects, but I also kept thinking its spiritual progenitor was more likely Forster's A Room with a View - both set in Florence, although taking place a good 50 years apart.
King knew Forster, and actually published an illustrated mini-biography about him (E. M. Forster and His World, and I think it quite possible that he wanted to show how things had and hadn't changed since that classic. King was stationed in Florence for 18 months right after the war, working and teaching for the British Council, and he brings all of that experience of a foreigner abroad to his sprawling canvas.
One of the notable things about King is that ALL of his characters are sketched in great detail; here, almost two dozen major and minor characters come to life so vividly that one can picture them completely - to extend the Room comparison, it's like a lost Merchant-Ivory film come to life before your eyes. Max Westfield, rich American businessman on holiday with his blended family, is the still center around which all the action revolves, but as Paul Binding makes clear in his informative Introduction, he remains a cipher and the character we wind up knowing least about.
Perhaps the most fascinating character is Max's 14-year-old son, Colin - who becomes infatuated with Enzo, an older Italian youth. Writing 6 years before the Wolfenden Report advocated decriminalization of homosexuality in England (and another decade before that would eventually take effect), King had to carefully let the reader know what is inspiring Colin's fascination, while still heavily coding such - it's an amazing tightrope walk.
But all of the characters are intriguing, and the propulsive and exquisite prose are simply unbeatable. It's nothing short of a crime that only 7 people have rated this here - Valencourt has reprinted the book in a sumptuous edition - and it should have many, many more readers.
December 26, 2023
It is difficult to believe that King was still in his twenties when he wrote this book. Hailed as one of the finest writers of his generation (though sadly now largely forgotten), King weaves an incredible story of one man's obliviousness to those around him. A good read in which all of the principal characters seem fully realized, this is a very good book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews