The Literature Book

image of the British Raj. He also

shows the marginalization of women

in a milieu where male friendships

are strong and mutally supportive.

THE TRIAL

(1925), FRANZ KAFKA

Written in 1914–15, The Trial is the

most complete of three unfinished

novels by Jewish-Czech writer

Franz Kafka (see p.211), who wrote

in German. Its account of Joseph K.,

arrested and prosecuted by an

inscrutable authority without being

told the nature of his crime, has

been interpreted as an archetypal

metaphor for modern alienation,

and for the dehumanizing effect of

elaborate, inflexible bureaucracies—

and, by extension, of totalitarian

states. The latter interpretation

makes Kafka a prescient author,

anticipating Fascism and Nazism.

MRS. DALLOWAY

(1925), VIRGINIA WOOLF

Mrs. Dalloway, written by Woolf

when she was at the height of her

powers, lays bare the consciousness

of a well-to-do woman spending a

day in London. Clarissa Dalloway’s

thoughts turn to a party she will

be hosting that evening, but also

range back in time, to her youth

and the experience of her marriage

to a reliable but unsatisfying man.

The other major character is a

traumatized soldier who spends

time in the park with his Italian

wife, before making a tragic

decision. Technically the novel is

accomplished and original, shifting

between direct and indirect

speech, and juggling between

omniscient narration, stream of

consciousness, and soliloquy.

THE COUNTERFEITERS

(1926), ANDRÉ GIDE

Seen as a precursor to the 1950s

nouveau roman novel form, The

Counterfeiters by French author

Gide (1869–1951) draws a parallel

between counterfeit gold coins and

the authenticity of human feelings

and relationships. Structured as

a story-within-a-story, the book is

complicated by multiple plots and

viewpoints in an attempt at a

literary form of Cubism, an art style

in which the concept of a single

point of perspective was abandoned.

Centered around young men in fin-

de-siècle Paris, one of the themes is

the possibilities for fulfillment

within homosexual relationships.

DOÑA BARBARA

(1929), RÓMULO GALLEGOS

Rómulo Gallegos (1884–1969) wrote

Doña Barbara two decades before

becoming the first democratically

elected president of his native

Venezuela. The novel—named after

its charismatic female character,

who exerts mysterious power

over men—examines the tension

between primitive and civilized

impulses, and between the sexes.

Set in the rural cattle-ranching

Llanos prairie region, the story is

told using evocative, vernacular

language. There are magical realist

elements that anticipate the fiction

of Gabriel García Márquez.

THE SOUND AND THE FURY

(1929), WILLIAM FAULKNER

An ambitious and enigmatic novel

comprising four counterpointed

perspectives, The Sound and the

Fury is a masterpiece by Nobel

Laureate Faulkner, master chronicler

242 FURTHER READING

Virginia Woolf

Foremost of the writers in the

“Bloomsbury Set” of influential

intellectuals and artists, Woolf

was born in 1882 in London.

She started writing as a girl

and her first novel, The Voyage

Out, appeared in 1915. She

married, happily, in 1912, but is

also known for her love affair

with talented gardener Vita

Sackville-West. Woolf soon

established herself as a leading

intellectual and writer, taking

fiction in a new direction—

inward. But she was prone to

depression and mood swings.

She committed suicide by

drowning near Lewes, Sussex,

in 1941, at 59. Many feminist

thinkers since her death have

revered her as an inspiration.

Key works

1925 Mrs. Dalloway (see left)

1927 To the Lighthouse

1931 The Waves

Someone must have been

telling lies about Joseph K.,

for without having done

anything wrong he was

arrested one fine morning.

The Trial

Franz Kafka

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