Alms For Oblivion Volume III

Alms for Oblivion

by Simon Raven

'Brisk, bawdy and reckless' Evening Standard

'A freak writer, he defies classification. In wilder moments he suggests a loose, lunatic collaboration of Trollope, Ouida and Waugh' Observer

The Alms for Oblivion sequence - an extraordinary series of murders, suicides, affairs, fighting, fires and at least one explosion, blackmail, gambling, illness, madness, lots of parties and plenty of sex - draws to a close with two novels about death and retribution. But Simon Raven's achievement and the conflicted, colourful or uniquely vile characters he created are not easily forgotten after the last page is turned.

Volume III includes Bring Forth the Body and The Survivors

'There are some people who consider the greatest cycle of twentieth-century novels to be Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. These people are wrong. Widmerpool and his joyless accomplices are as nothing compared to the characters in Simon Raven's majestic, scurrilous and scabrous Alms for Oblivion cycle' Guardian

Genres: British Literature, Fiction

508 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 1999

About the author

Simon Arthur Noël Raven (28 December 1927 – 12 May 2001) was an English novelist, essayist, dramatist and raconteur who, in a writing career of forty years, caused controversy, amusement and offence. His obituary in The Guardian noted that, "he combined elements of Flashman, Waugh's Captain Grimes and the Earl of Rochester", and that he reminded Noel Annan, his Cambridge tutor, of the young Guy Burgess.

Among the many things said about him, perhaps the most quoted was that he had "the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel". E W Swanton called Raven's cricket memoir Shadows on the Grass "the filthiest cricket book ever written". He has also been called "cynical" and "cold-blooded", his characters "guaranteed to behave badly under pressure; most of them are vile without any pressure at all". His unashamed credo was "a robust eighteenth-century paganism....allied to a deep contempt for the egalitarian code of post-war England"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_R...

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

See individual titles for reviews.

[Roslyn Petelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

how had I never heard of this series?

I had not heard of this author until last week. This Roman fleuve is utterly brilliant, very much equal to A dance to the music of time, Strangers and brothers, the Forsyte saga, and, my favourite, A staircase in Surrey.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have recently read again and reviewed the two novels in this volume, 'Bring Forth the Body' and 'The Survivors'. I have also reviewed and discussed the weaknesses, and rare strengths, of all the novels in the 'Alms for Oblivion' series individually and in the two previous anthology volumes. I see no point in repeating what has been said andrefer you to my earlier reviews.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it is always difficult to bring to an end a series of novels, while at the same time presenting a novel that works in itself, and the last Alms for Oblivion book, The Survivors, spends (I think) too much time dealing with events that have previously occurred. The story itself is (as always with Simon Raven) brilliant and superbly written (and I intend to get the next series, The First-Born of Egypt, even though they were supposedly "only written for money"), and both books in this collection are great.

One caveat, as well: The Survivors has material in it that is, even for Raven, sexually perverse and veering on the pornographic. Made me feel a bit queasy, that did.

[Matthias Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the last couple of years I read the novel sequence, and it was one of the most enjoyable long-term projects I had. The concluding volumes sometimes have the feel of twisting the tale to take up every loose thread and bring it to a an acceptable end, but in my opinion it is never too jarringly obvious, and it is the opportunity to either let resurface enjoyable characters or even introduce new ones. The finale in Venice is just fitting. Read every novel of the sequence, you’re in for a treat. For me, it compares favorably with ‚Dance to the music of time‘ - because it is more devastatingly ironic.