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The Widow
When her husband, an Indian Civil Servant, dies on his way to take up a new and important post, Christine Cornwell is left with a son and daughter, and a small pension on which to support them. She is a woman of unusual toughness and resilience, and she adapts herself quickly to the difficulties of her new life as a widow in England in the mid 1930s; to the war; and, finally, to the mutilation of her son, a bomber pilot. But her resources begin to fail her when, after the war, she feels herself cast aside and isolated. One of the new poor and no longer young, she is wanted less and less by the world in general and her children in particular. With this new and dramatic challenge it is harder to come to terms than with all those that have gone before it; but as Francis King presents her, with a wonderful mixtures of shrewdness and compassion, Christine still has depths of character which, in the end, lead her to a solution. First published in 1957 and set off by a host of minor characters drawn with Francis King's remarkable certainty of touch, the reviewer in "The Times" thought "The Widow" 'more accomplished than anything he had written', confirming the author's own view that it was his finest novel.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 29, 1961
15 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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April 6, 2024
My 29th of King's books to be read in my deep dive of his oeuvre; his 7th novel from 1957.
The back cover claims this was King's favorite of his novels, but whether that was out of all 32 or only of the ones published by then, it doesn't say. I'd say this was more middle-of-the-pack for me; it's certainly readable and as accomplished prose-wise as any of his other books, but aside from the titular character, Christine, I felt almost every other one was fairly despicable, especially her two children and her stepson. This was no doubt intentional, as it made Christine even more sympathetic and downtrodden, but one really wanted to throttle everyone else!
The back cover claims this was King's favorite of his novels, but whether that was out of all 32 or only of the ones published by then, it doesn't say. I'd say this was more middle-of-the-pack for me; it's certainly readable and as accomplished prose-wise as any of his other books, but aside from the titular character, Christine, I felt almost every other one was fairly despicable, especially her two children and her stepson. This was no doubt intentional, as it made Christine even more sympathetic and downtrodden, but one really wanted to throttle everyone else!
Displaying 1 of 1 review