Doting (British Literature) - Softcover

Green, Henry

3.78

221 ratings by Goodreads

9781564782663: Doting (British Literature)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564782662 ISBN 13: 9781564782663

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2001

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Written almost completely in dialogue, Henry Green's final novel is a biting comedy of manners that exposes the deceptive difference between those who love and those who "dote." Arthur Middleton is a middle-aged member of the upper-middle class living in post-World War II London with his wife. Stuck in a passionless marriage, Arthur becomes infatuated with Annabel, a much younger woman. Their relationship sets into motion a series of intertwining affairs between five close friends less concerned with love than with their attempts to keep the other lovers apart.

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From the Inside Flap:

Doting begins and ends with a dinner given for seventeen-year-old Peter Middleton by his parents, Arthur and Diana. Annabel Paynton, a young woman of nineteen, attends both dinners; at the second the four are joined by Charles Addinsell, a family friend, and Claire Belaine, a friend of Annabel. In the short time between these two dinners Green unfolds a series of intermeshing and largely unsuccessful relationships. Arthur Middleton courts Annabel, his wife takes up with Charles Addinsell, Charles and Claire embark on an affair. Peter is injured in a car crash on his way to Scotland, where his parents had hoped he would be out of the way while they pursue their own affairs. In relating these botched and timorous affairs, and in presenting the relationship between Peter and his parents, Green examines, with his usual mordant wit and original style, the deceptive differences between doting and loving.

About the Author:

Henry Green was the pen name of Henry Vincent Yorke. He was born in 1905 at the family home of his parents, near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, England, and was educated at Eton and Oxford. He worked at the family engineering firm for most of his life and pursued a parallel career as a novelist. He married in 1928 and had one son. During WWII he served in the London Fire Brigade. He died in December 1973.

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