Леговището на лъва

by V.S. Pritchett, Виктор С. Причит

Сборник с разкази от Виктор С. Причит.

Genres: Short Stories, British Literature

157 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 1974

About the author

Victor Sawdon Pritchett was the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (née Martin). His father, a London businessman in financial difficulties, had come to Ipswich to start a shop selling newspapers and stationery. The business was struggling and the couple were lodging over a toyshop at 41 St Nicholas Street where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after the Queen. Pritchett never liked his first name, which is why he always styled himself with his initials; even close friends would call him VSP.

Pritchett's father was a steady Christian Scientist and unsteady in all else. Walter and Beatrice had come to Ipswich to be near her sister who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to Woodford, Essex, then to Derby, and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in Sedbergh, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit, and his easy deceit obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited but life was always precarious; they tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family. They returned to Ipswich in 1910, living for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St. John's School. Subsequently Pritchett attended Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and Dulwich College but he stayed nowhere for very long. When his father went to fight in World War I, Pritchett left school. Later in the war Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, of which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation, and faith healing.

Pritchett was a leather buyer from 1916 to 1920, when he moved to Paris, where he worked as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for the Christian Science Monitor, which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for the paper and for the New Statesman, which later appointed him literary editor.

Pritchett's first book described his journey across Spain (Marching Spain 1928) and Clare Drummer (1929) was about his experiences in Ireland. Whilst in Ireland he met his first wife, Evelyn Vigors, but it was not to be a happy marriage.

Pritchett published five novels but he claimed not to enjoy their creation. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories (The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories (1932)).

In 1936 he divorced his first wife, and married Dorothy Rudge Roberts; they had two children. The marriage lasted until Pritchett's death, although they both had other relationships. His son is the journalist Oliver Pritchett and his grandson (son of Oliver) is the cartoonist Matt Pritchett.

During World War II Pritchett worked for the BBC and the Ministry of Information whilst continuing to submit a weekly essay to the New Statesman. After the war he wrote widely and he started taking teaching positions at universities in the United States: Princeton (1953), the University of California (1962), Columbia University and Smith College. He was fluent in German, Spanish, and French, and published successful biographies of Honoré de Balzac (1973), Ivan Turgenev (1977) and Anton Chekhov (1988), although he did not know Russian and had never visited the Soviet Union.

Pritchett was knighted in 1975 for his services to literature and became Companion of Honour in 1993. His awards include Heinemann Award (1969), PEN Award (1974), W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990), and Golden Pen Award (1993). He died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Pr...

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is often poignantly sad when a fine and accomplished writer's oeuvre passes into the realms of dead letters,their work neglected,their name forgotten,passed over by new & younger readers and sent,with a shrug of indifference,into literary oblivion.Such has been the case with V.S.P.,as Sir Victor Sawdon Pritchett,who died in 1977. I owe his exhumation for me to a piece in Martin Amis's pot-pourri 'Visiting Mrs Nabokov' (1997),which praised V.S.P.'s work as worth remembering,with a brief,fond character sketch.I made my way to my local branch library to find that all his work was held in the central reserve stock,the waiting room, as it were, before general literary oblivion follows.
I oredered up 'The Camberwell Beauty'...& a collection of short stories from the vast reach of Amazon! Suffice to say, my efforts have been amply rewarded with Pritchett's collection of 9 stories, a quite disparate display of Pritchett's particular voice & tone,reminiscent of Greene,Spark and Maugham.There are some jagged moments but generally the stories stand up to be counted with their quirky characters and interesting dialogues.The settings too are not always commonplace...and Pritchett shows, if I might shanghai a current publishing mantra,that there are more than fifty shades of grey...but few writers can honestly capture them in words! V.S.P. does;though these vignettes are far from grey. I would recommend other readers to resuscitate such writers before they are lost to the world in reserve-stocks,second-hand bookshops & on the shelves of your ancient maiden-aunts in Eastbourne! Read on...

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, unusual short stories about people, relationships, humanity, deep feelings, doubt, infidelity, struggle and making the best of things.
Pritchett knew people and he knew how to express deep feelings and inner doubts. Great stuff.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very good stories in this collection but the writing style is very dated (certainly compared to many mid-century authors I've read).

[Hans Ostrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific short story.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dated but well written stories about relationships & the psychological misunderstandings within them. The audiobook has a peculiar slightly stilted style, a bit like an old movie.