Radcliffe

by David Storey

Book by David Storey

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Queer, Classics, 20th Century, LGBT, Gay

Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

David Storey was an English playwright, screenwriter, award-winning novelist and a former professional rugby league player. Storey was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire in 1933, and studied at the Slade School of Art.

His first two novels were both published in 1960, a few months apart: This Sporting Life, which won the Macmillan Fiction Award and was adapted for an award-winning 1963 film, and Flight Into Camden, which won the Somerset Maugham Award. His next novel, Radcliffe (1963) met with widespread critical acclaim in both England and the United States, and during the 1960s and 70s, Storey became widely known for his plays, several of which achieved great success.

He returned to fiction in 1972 with Pasmore, which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award and was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Saville (1976) won the Booker Prize and has been hailed by at least one critic as the best of all the Booker winners. His last novel was Thin-Ice Skater (2004).

David Storey lived in London. He was married and had four children.

Reviews

[John Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

RADCLIFFE, by David Storey. I've had this old Avon Books paperback lying around on my shelves for years and years (correct cover not depicted here on goodreads), but never got around to reading it until now. It's a pre-Stonewall gay novel, about a destructive, mutually obsessive relationship between two young men who cannot stay away from each other. It was first published in 1963 and is set in a bleak 1950s Yorkshire, England ... yet the Avon Books cover depicts the two main actors in the story as if they are about to head out to a 1970s disco in Key West or something.... Never mind that. This is actually my favourite cover of RADCLIFFE of all the many editions that have been issued over the years. This artist's depiction of Leonard Radcliffe, the sleepy-eyed aristocratic hero with his perpetual look of consolation, is nearly perfect. On the other hand, the depiction of the heavily muscled and tanned Vic Tolson contrasts somewhat with my image of a well-built Yorkshire workman whose exposure to the fogs, mists, and rains of Yorkshire are not likely to yield this tanned beach-body Mykonos party ideal.... But never mind that as well. It remains a strong evocation of the two main characters and the imbalanced nature of their relationship. Leonard Radcliffe -- one of my favourite heroes in fiction -- is the weak, submissive aesthete, partnered with Tolson's tall, strong, charismatic, aggressive, and dominating personality. The theme, which switches the authority of ruling class versus working class, might seem reminiscent of Robin Maugham's THE SERVANT. But the Gothic atmosphere of RADCLIFFE is what sets it apart as a hothouse of intensity and excess quite unique in literature. David Storey is a remarkable writer, and this was published when he was only 30 years old. At the time of its publication, it was easily the most important Gothic novel to come along since Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA. And unless something has escaped me, I can't think of any other Gothic novel since RADCLIFFE that is any better. Putting Leonard Radcliffe in the central role normally taken by a young female helps make this a wholly original take on the genre. And of course that appeals to my gay sensibilities enormously. This is an overwhelming story, steeped in atmosphere, and depicted using only exteriors, as if we are the camera or the chorus witnessing all of the key details of the story without ever penetrating the interior thoughts of the characters. But of course, it is the external details of landscape, architecture, action, and mood that give us the clues to what is going on in the characters' heads. The point of view, though wholly external, remains intensely focused on Leonard Radcliffe and his experiences as a young man who falls under the spell of the muscular Vic Tolson. Radcliffe is pretty much the last in the line of a long lineage of Radcliffes dating back to before the War of the Roses. Their manor house, the Place, is in a state of perpetual decay, and indeed is now managed by a trust, with Radcliffe's father put in charge and essentially employed as a caretaker. The Place serves as a metaphor for the decline of the aristocracy's place in modern English life, as well as the lies that lie behind the foundations of our society. RADCLIFFE is packed with symbols and themes, stirring a heady brew of emotion and violence that propels the story forward in richly dripping prose. This was an intoxicating novel whose strong pulsating story of sexual obsession had me hooked. If I had read this when I was younger, I may have found it depressing as a story. However, as an older reader, I found it an incredible work of art. I am now going to read everything else by David Storey (eventually), although I realize none of his other work approaches the same type of story and themes as in RADCLIFFE.

[Dennis Holland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I’ve been enjoying life as a gay dude so much right now to really make a connection with this dark, complex story. I will definitely think about reading it again another time—maybe in a haunted old hotel somewhere with Madonna’s Erotica playing in the background.

[Misha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What a contemptible and putrid thing the body is. It does nothing but destroy us, hanging on us like a sickness, devouring us until we're assimilated by it, and die with it."

Radcliffe by David Storey was originally published in 1963 and has been brought back by Valancourt Books. I was shocked to realise that something like this was published back in the 60s, apparently it shocked even the author's father. 

Somewhere in a small Yorkshire town, Leonard Radcliffe, member of a dying aristocratic family, grows up in a dilapidated manor house. He encounters Vic Tolson, belonging to a family of workmen, first as a child and then as an adult, which is when their relationship grows into an obsessive, destructive love. If Leonard represents the mind, Vic is the body, somehow the two don't intertwine well.

This book made me physically sick, I say this with love. Radcliffe is queer gothic horror reminiscent of the works of James Purdy mixed with Dostoevsky (particularly Crime and Punishment and The Idiot) and Daphne Du Maurier. Somehow this combination works. Really dubious morality, transgression of societal norms, grotesque characters and even more grotesque situations that are nauseating, depicting a very human horror. The prose is delicious like Du Maurier's - the use of landscape, nature and descriptions of mundane objects to enhance the feeling of an underlying terror is brilliant. There is a sense of bleakness and foreboding imbued in the most ordinary things.

Yet, my journey with this book has not been smooth. In the first half, I really struggled because everything - the characters, the situations - seemed so cryptic. It made me so anxious in a way that I could not decipher. And I am still not sure if that's a good thing. Then in the second half, the book seemed to reveal itself fully, still anxiety-inducing but with more clarity. I feel like I am still processing it all.

[ALEARDO ZANGHELLINI · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not for the faint-hearted.

This complex and extraordinary book is another of those works that make me realize how reductive it is to lump together all pre 1960s gay fiction as expressing homophobia, internalised homophobia, self-hate, etc. In the 21st century at least, when we no longer lack positive portrayals of gay characters and relationships in fiction, we are entirely free to read this not as a statement about the doomed and perverse nature of same-sex relationships (though if you are an evangelical Christian you will of course read it that way), but as a story about love gone wrong: compulsive, obsessive, possessive, twisted, power-ridden love; and about how the interplay between individual temperament and social circumstances may land two people into the troes of just that kind of love.

Thus, I think it is a mistake to see Leonard as the prime example of the ‘homosexual’ suffering from psychiatric disorders. There is much more to Leonard than the madman that the State officially decrees he is. Then again, neither is he really the philosopher striving for the Absolute that he comes to think of himself as. I also disagree with the reviewer who characterises him as an aesthete. Leonard is a highly intelligent, introverted, borderline-autistic, affection-starved boy and young man, whose fragile inner equilibrium is eventually shattered by the abuse to which the one man who happens to have the ability to draw him out of his shell subjects him.

It seems to me there is a distinctively queer (rather than gay) sensibility to the novel - something all the more fascinating if Daniel Storey identified primarily as straight. (I have no idea if he did. He was married with 4 kids, I think, but that’s not necessarily conclusive.)

Some of the twists and turns are completely unexpected; in other cases the author prepares you for the inevitable with excruciating deliberation, so that when the unpleasant climax actually happens you almost sigh with relief.

At the start I was unconvinced by the queerly visionary way in which Leonard experienced the reality of the Place and the estate - it seemed to me to distract from the plot development. But it all falls into place in good time.

There is a satisfying incongruity between the gothic feel of the novel and the setting in a mid-century English housing estate.

The book is also darkly sexy — in all the WRONG ways.

[Peter Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still figuring out what I think about this, which is something of a compliment, I guess. A good deal of it dumbfounds me-- Why write a book about (with the exception of one or two minor characters) characters that are all severely psychologically impaired and irredeemable? A real downer, but worth discussion.

What is immediately striking is that the segment and circumstances in which the two male protagonists have their first sexual encounter is startling similar to the segment in "Brokeback Mountain." Has Proulx read this novel? It was published in 1963.

[Karon Walkee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overwrought, self- important and pretentious.

Good lord, this was a difficult read. I have two words for anyone who actually thought this was a good book: Giovanni’s Room. THAT is how it’s done.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spoilers Ahead. I feel lucky that I was able to read this book. It had been in a for sale bin at a used bookstore, they were practically giving it away. The cover (different than the one pictured here) looked like something from a cheesy soap opera, but it was the style of writing that really attracted me. A mentally stimulating work that seemed to me a blend of Charles Dickens and Anne Rice. Radcliffe is a viseral story of Leonard and Vic as their obsession spirals into destruction. Leonard and Vic are two seperate parts of a complete soul. Leonard interacts with his enviornment and other characters with a brooding demenor an alienates others as he drifts off into his own thoughts (mind). Vic is very physical and strong, respected for being a hard worker, and a family man (body). The two first met eachother as boys, and meet again while working. Leonard comes from a line of extinguished aristocrats, his father John is the owner of Beaumont also known as "the Place" which acts as a mirror to the past lifestyle that is gone with the wind (lol). The Radcliffe family makes frequent visits to the house, Leonard's uncle Austen more than the others. Austen yearns for the dead status of the aristocrisy and manipulates/ demeans John. Leonard and Vic can never fully love eachother, they fight, but their frustrations stem from living in a society where their love is not understood and therefore hidden. Blakely, an actor/comedian who lives a married life and has three children (playing the part a husband when he is gay, playing the part of Vic's friend while lusting after him, becomes Leonard's friend because he envies the status of his bloodline and hopes he will marry his daughter so he has a better chance with Vic, plays the part of a happy family man when he hids an incestous relationship with his daughter and the fact that he is the father of her two children.) Vic rapes? Elizabeth, Leonard's sister, it is never really made clear is she was willing but perhaps; she becomes pregnant. Leonard eventually kills Vic, beating him to death with a hammer, jealous of Elizabeth's child. With Vic dead, all of Blakely's lies implode and he kills his family and slits his own throat while looking into a mirror. The book is filled with vivid descriptions of the rugged landscape, which is itself becomes another character like Beaumont. After Leonoard dies, Elizabeth has her child that has a Radcliffes eyes, and Leonard's peculiar demenor, and Vic's physicallity. Leonard has some very thought provoking meditations on the suffering of Christ and the relationship between the mind, the body, the soul, and how they all play a part in love. A gothic masterpiece, wonderfully layered and eloquently expressed. I cannot adequetly delve into all the relationships and different aspects of this beautiful work in this box. One of my favorite books.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times hectically winding, the writing style seems to mimic the turbulent mental states of many of the characters. Each character’s flaws are painted in stark clarity; creating a reading experience where I was ricocheted between sympathy at their struggles and extreme discontent as they repeatedly self-sabotaged.

Yet what I found I loved the most about this book is how it is an unapologetic depiction of mental illness and neurodivergence. While never directly spelled out, it’s evident in Leonard’s way of viewing the world and navigating it, which I personally interpreted as somewhere along the autism spectrum. Add in troubled family dynamics, societal expectations, and struggles of understanding oneself, and you got a book which enraptures the reader.

While slow at times, “Radcliffe” is a story which I enjoyed, and I look forward to a reread.

[Mathuson Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oscillating between moments of poetic brilliance and mindnumbing boredom, Storey’s “Radcliffe” is a taxing hex of a novel.

There are moments in “Radcliffe” that leave me gasping for air. The violence, and an unapologetic anger lurking beneath the surface of the story not unlike the train that run’s beneath the manor. Unfortunately for me, I found myself captivated only occasionally. I really believe that the relationship Storey knits between Victor and Leonard is intriguing and worthy of exploring, but the roundabout way in which he examines it feels like more work than necessary. I found myself grasping at strings trying to connect the author’s preoccupation with lengthy descriptions of the setting/weather with the narrative. Early on there’s a nearly three page long section devoted to architecturally describing “The Place” in such exacting terms I found myself searching for the definition of every other word. Some reviews of “Radcliffe” liken it to “Wuthering Heights”, so as such I began to try and connect Storey’s descriptions of “The Place” and other structures to Leonard’s held belief of visualizing himself and his relationships with physical structures. For a time this worked, but even then it felt like a loose gothic theory desperately trying to justify continuously exhausting hunks of text dedicated to the way light hit the shrubs. In addition there’s a tremendous lack of empathy for any character in “Radcliffe”, which perhaps is intentional, but decidedly frustrating as a reader. It’s not often that I force myself to finish a book I’m clearly not enjoying, but every now and then there’d be a glimmer of brilliance. The pages would turn in rapid succession as I was sucked into the melodrama— but then it would fade, and it’d be another fifty pages of empty laborious reading. A description of a building. Dialogue from damaged individuals without any insight to their emotion. The denouement is really visceral and exciting, and quite special, but it putters out quickly considering the 280+ pages of work put into achieving it. The climax isn’t shocking because its alluded to quite heavy handedly for a number of chapters, but it’s still gorgeously bloody. The last thirty pages were an absolute chore to finish and I was so *SPOILER ALERT* unbelievably happy when Leonard finally kicked the bucket. I’d say read it if it’s raining outdoors and you’re feeling particularly masturbatory to your brooding emotions. Any other day— I’d say pass.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book! Outstanding prose, steady pacing and a well plotted narrative hold your attention. The lonesome protagonist catches your sympathy. Existential elements astutely balance a dreamscape that permeates both characters and setting. Here is the kind of writing whose parts work together to mark the difference between a good story and a great one.

The setup is simple: Leonard Radcliffe meets Victor Tolson in grade school and their paths cross again as adults. An affair starts that turns more and more obsessive, each finding some beguiling trait in the other. But what are these recondite traits? What is the hidden kernel of attraction? A pantomime of love and hate, rejection and acceptance, violence and weakness, plays out as the men seemingly stalk one another.

The ghostly drama reminds a reader of Wuthering Heights. The suffusing aura grows out of compressed, descriptive prose. When a motorbike takes off the author tells us, "The bike moaned into its madness, crazed by its own screams." But offsetting that is an existentialism popular at the time and most notably seen in the novel Stoner.

Existential touchstones come up in dialog: "I feel I need an absolute in life. And yet there's nowhere I can find it. Except in the decision itself." But these touchstones - the absurd, the decision, dread - are also woven into the plot, most remarkably at pivotal moments. Sometimes the psychological and the existential even blend together, as in this passage:

... the screen of his consciousness was interspersed with long periods of flickering, incoherent light, alternating with sudden, extremely vivid impressions. It was the disconnectedness that made these intermittent pictures so alarming and gave him a feverish anxiety to know exactly what had occurred in between to cause them.

The existential motif gives sexuality a factual, judgment-free space unusual for the era. Leonard's father can thus freely comment on his son's relationship with Victor. Homophobia, where it exists, is mainly internalized. Otherwise, Victor's physical prowess puts a check on the anti-gay bias of other people, and the narrative confines what remains to a formal, legalistic context. The approach markedly strengthens the story where it could easily have gone astray.

I highly recommend Radcliffe. I'd usually recommend such a book chiefly to gay readers, but the other aspects of this book give it significant crossover appeal. This story is one that all fans of good fiction can enjoy.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written in 1963 by future Booker pize winner David Storey, Radcliffe touches on many of the same class themes and changing societal norms that Storey became known for. Here the plot is weighed down by a lot of Gothic trappings and a morosoe and introverted title character who is too unlikeable - and inaccessible - to be much of a protagonist. In the midst of all this is a volatile obsession between the isolated Radcliffe his working class friend/bully Tolson that isn't really a romance or friendship.

I read this mostly because I like David Storey's prose and have enjoyed other works by him and I thought it would be interesting to read some pre-Stonewall gay fiction, but I just couldn't get into this one at all. Radcliffe, the character, is about as interesting as soggy toast and he is surrounded by mostly horrible people.

Storey's writing skill elevated this to a 2 star "It's OK" rating.

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grim, bleak and depressing.

[Ian B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published early in Storey’s career, before he branched out into playwriting, Radcliffe is a puzzling and often frustrating read. I have the original 1965 paperback, on the back of which is a quote from the Daily Telegraph asserting that this ‘astonishing achievement… establishes [him] as the leading novelist of his generation.’ I think it’s fair to say that this statement has not weathered the years. What the author thought he was doing is difficult to know. Plainly he didn’t set out to produce a realist text. It reminded me at times of opera – tumultuous emotions seemingly coming out of nowhere – or a gothic novel. Navigating the painstaking descriptions of the characters’ gestures and expressions was like reading stage directions for a Victorian melodrama.

Radcliffe feels like the sort of book that even the author himself would have had trouble rationalizing two years after he’d written it. And yet it has grandeur. Storey is bloody-mindedly going his own way and I can’t help but admire him for that, especially now, when so much literature aims for popularity first and goes meekly along with the cultural consensus. Although the outcome of the narrative is thematically inevitable, the mood beforehand is one of prickling unease; an odd experience recounted by Radcliffe’s father encapsulates the novel’s knife edge between love and violence:

‘I just saw the two heads approaching each other along the top of the wall. One was a man, the other a woman. And they were both about fifty, perhaps slightly more. Then, just when it seemed they’d crash into each other, they suddenly paused and, after a moment, kissed each other on the cheek. It was extraordinary. But do you know, for that second I was filled with absolute terror?’

[John Roman Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rare and finely written book, arguably David Storey's best novel. It is densely written, but then so are Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann. The thing that surprises me most is that there is no page on it on Wikipedia and it is just listed as one of his novels. I recall clearly when it was published that it was well received, and yet somehow I get the impression that its greatness has been smothered over time, and I wonder for what reason. It is a love story between two complex men, but a love story that ends violently partly due to their impossibility of accepting love and so inducing hatred. I did not mention Proust or Mann only for their density of style, but that both authors wrote about homosexuality, and not in a 'positive' way and neither is 'Radcliffe', but then all three authors wrote against backgrounds of homophobia, and publishers were hostile to what we would now term as happy endings. I look at the title; 'Radcliffe' and doesn't it sound close to 'Heathcliff' and 'Wuthering Heights'? I believe that David Storey wanted to convey a similar, but obviously different tortured but passionate relationship. To sum up; an extraordinary book that is somehow no longer given the recognition it deserves, and this I find saddening.

[W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I honestly don't know what to make of it. I really enjoy the writing and the plot, I think similar to how I've read Golding lately, follows the inevitable tragedy and shock it would follow were these people to do these things.

The interpersonal moments sometimes were jarring as you'd expect people to react a lot more differently but then I don't know if I'm inserting sensibilities of interactions I'd expect to that period of time and place and the unusualness of the 'taboo'.

[Steve Kirby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book, in which a sexual relationship between two men from different social classes is presented as simply an aspect of their identity rather that it being the central component of who they are. Considering it was written in the early 60's, this seems very radical. I really liked the fact that the novel is hard to categorize and pidgeon hole; with strands concerning social alienation, class, sexuality and madness.

[Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a dreary slog through rural working class England. Radcliffe, the main character was descended from the landowning class of a large estate. As schoolboy, he becomes friends with a rather rough large lout. They meet again as co-workers in a set up company and the plot revolves from there. The writing is dull and prolix and minor characters & situations go on for pages and pages.

[Jesse Stclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely queer Wuthering Heights. Probably a good 1/3 of the book is describing the scenery in the vein of Ann Radcliffe (wonder if the name of the book was an homage?!). A really interesting look into characters not normally seen in queer lit or even straight lit.

[RD Chiriboga Moncayo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Class differences fuel a same-sex, sadistic-masochistic relationship in this melodramatic, lifeless novel.

[Helen Geng]

Read 2021

[Dionysius · Rating 3 out of 5]

The imagery in this book is beautiful. It was a fairly simple read and fairly addictive.

[Grebbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favourite Storey so far due to the plot but no denying the quality of writing. Published 1963.

[Mike Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

a dark and difficult book - full review here
http://0651frombrighton.blogspot.co.u...

[Margareth8537 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically a "gay" novel, when to be homosexual was not to be gay. It was depressing, explicit in some ways, but also quite pretentious at times. Not one I enjoyed. David Storey got better!

[Jasper Minton-taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd book, a mix a some beautiful language and imagery with odd sections that seem to rush on without links.

[David]

Insanely disorienting. I wanted to like it, but felt, ultimately, no empathy for any of the main characters.