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The Connecting Door
While Heppenstall’s earlier novels, particularly his debut, perhaps anticipated certain structural and thematic characteristics of the nouveau roman, The Connecting Door openly demonstrated the influence of the école du regard....A nameless man in his late thirties arrives in an unidentified city on the Rhine in 1948 on a journalistic assignment; the relationships he develops with two younger men, local officials, and several women prompt recriminations about his previous visits to the area, in 1931 and 1936. The narrative drew heavily on Heppenstall’s own experiences, and reflected his literary influences, both through a range of allusions and its structural experimentation, which was foregrounded to an unprecedented level.[description taken from ]
- GenresLiteratureFictionNovels
164 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1968
103 people want to read
About the author
Rayner Heppenstall
55 books5 followersJohn Rayner Heppenstall was an English novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC radio producer.
Heppenstall's first novel The Blaze of Noon, was neglected at the time. Much later, in 1967, it received an Arts Council award. He was Francophile in literary terms, and his non-fiction writing reflects his tastes.
Critical attention has linked him to the French nouveau roman, in fact as an anticipator, or as a writer of the "anti-novel". Several critics (including, according to his diaries, Helene Cixous) have named Heppenstall in this connection. He is sometimes therefore grouped with Alain Robbe-Grillet, or associated with other British experimentalists: Anthony Burgess, B. S. Johnson, Ann Quin, Alan Burns, Stefan Themerson and Eva Figes. The Connecting Door (1962) is singled out as influenced by the nouveau roman.
He was certainly influenced by Raymond Roussel, whose Impressions of Africa he translated. Later novels include The Shearers, Two Moons and The Pier. He also wrote a short study of the French Catholic writer Léon Bloy.
Heppenstall's first novel The Blaze of Noon, was neglected at the time. Much later, in 1967, it received an Arts Council award. He was Francophile in literary terms, and his non-fiction writing reflects his tastes.
Critical attention has linked him to the French nouveau roman, in fact as an anticipator, or as a writer of the "anti-novel". Several critics (including, according to his diaries, Helene Cixous) have named Heppenstall in this connection. He is sometimes therefore grouped with Alain Robbe-Grillet, or associated with other British experimentalists: Anthony Burgess, B. S. Johnson, Ann Quin, Alan Burns, Stefan Themerson and Eva Figes. The Connecting Door (1962) is singled out as influenced by the nouveau roman.
He was certainly influenced by Raymond Roussel, whose Impressions of Africa he translated. Later novels include The Shearers, Two Moons and The Pier. He also wrote a short study of the French Catholic writer Léon Bloy.
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