Reading the 20th Century discussion

C.P. Snow is not yet a favourite, but I keep coming across references to his work and to him and, from what I can glean, I feel confident he could probably become a favourite.


Have you read C.P. Snow?

What do you think of C.P. Snow?

Where does the C.P. Snow novice start their C.P. Snow journey?



According to Wikipedia this is his bibliography:

Strangers and Brothers series

George Passant (first published as Strangers and Brothers), 1940
The Light and the Dark, 1947
Time of Hope, 1949
The Masters, 1951
The New Men, 1954
Homecomings, 1956
The Conscience of the Rich, 1958
The Affair, 1959
Corridors of Power, 1964
The Sleep of Reason, 1968
Last Things, 1970

Other fiction

Death Under Sail, 1932
New Lives for Old, 1933
The Search, 1934
The Malcontents, 1972
In Their Wisdom, 1974, shortlisted for the Booker Prize
A Coat of Varnish, 1979

Non-fiction

The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, 1959
Science and Government, 1961
The Two Cultures and a Second Look, 1963
Variety of men, 1967
The State of Siege, 1968
Public Affairs, 1971
Trollope: His Life and Art, 1975
The Realists, 1978
The Physicists, 1981

Literary work

Snow's first novel was a whodunit, Death under Sail (1932).

In 1975 he wrote a biography of Anthony Trollope.

But he is better known as the author of a sequence of novels entitled Strangers and Brothers in which he depicts intellectuals in academic and government settings in the modern era. The best-known of the sequence is The Masters. It deals with the internal politics of a Cambridge college as it prepares to elect a new master. Having all the appeal of an insider’s view, the novel depicts concerns other than the strictly academic that influence the decisions of supposedly objective scholars. The Masters and The New Men were jointly awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1954. Corridors of Power added a phrase to the language of the day.

In 1974, Snow's novel In Their Wisdom was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

In The Realists, an examination of the work of eight novelists – Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Benito Pérez Galdós, Henry James and Marcel Proust – Snow makes a robust defence of the realistic novel.

The storyline of his novel The Search is referenced in Dorothy L. Sayers's Gaudy Night and is used to help elicit the criminal's motive.

The publication order of the Strangers and Brothes series is not the narrative order. I started with Time of Hope, which is the first book in chronological sequence, and will tackle George Passant next.

I liked Time of Hope very much. I can't say much about it without getting into spoilers, though.

That's very interesting and helpful Patrick


So it's a bit like that Simon Raven series - the chronological order is different from the published sequence. Is there a list somewhere of the chronological sequence?

Nigeyb wrote: "Is there a list somewhere of the chronological sequence? "


Found it...

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

Goodreads itself numbers them correctly.

I want to get into the Simon Raven, and also Henry Williamson and Dorothy Richardson. I love the idea of romans fleuves.

Jules Romains' 27-volume Men of Good Will is also on my list and is available in toto in English, saints be praised.

Patrick wrote: "Saints be praised"


Amen to that

I remember the Strangers and Brothers TV adaptation, though I don't think I saw all of it. I read one or two of the books, probably more than 30 years ago, and enjoyed them as far as I recall - I know I liked The Light and the Dark.

Thanks Judy.


Mrs B was saying yesterday she thought they'd be something I'd enjoy.

The Strangers and Brothers books were adapted by the BBC as a 10-episode Radio 4 Classic Serial, first broadcast in 2003, most recently repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra in March 2016.

The series starred Adam Godley (ep.1-5) then David Haig (ep.6-10) as Lewis, Anastasia Hille as Sheila and Juliet Aubrey as Margaret.

It's now being broadcast again on BBC Radio 4 Extra...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017g...

Time of Hope - Episode 1 of 10 is on iPlayer...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017gq5y

I'm going to try this as it seems a good way to decide whether to read the entire series.

Having looked on Amazon, Time of Hope is listed as first in the series and they are being re-published in February, with nice new covers. Sadly, I can't see them listed on Goodreads just yet (the new editions, that is).

^ I thoroughly enjoyed the one hour BBC dramatisation of Time of Hope (Strangers and Brothers #1) by C.P. Snow

Next up, The Conscience of the Rich...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017gtdx

I notice the Strangers and Brothers series is getting a spiffy new Kindle reissue on 22 Feb 2018...

A meticulous study of the public issues and private problems of post-war Britain, C. P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers sequence is a towering achievement that stands alongside Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time as one of the great romans-fleuves of the twentieth century.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Hope-St...

Evoking A Dance to the Music of Time is always going to get me very interested



Time of Hope (Strangers and Brothers #1) by C.P. Snow

The life of Lewis Eliot – documented across eleven novels with C. P. Snow’s distinctive blend of precision and compassion – begins in Time of Hope.

The novel opens in the summer of 1914 when nine-year-old Lewis hears the news of his father’s bankruptcy, and closes in 1933, when, although hindered in his promising career as a lawyer by the neuroses of his wife, he realises that he cannot bear to leave her. In the course of this ambitious but ultimately unremarkable man’s early life rage the great questions of the age – questions of class, of gender, of ideology and of war – asked and answered with wisdom and tolerance.

I think we posted at the same time, Nigeyb :) Yes, I noticed the new covers and have pre-ordered the first one in the series to try.

I'll be interested in your reaction Susan.


I suspect, a bit like A Dance To The Music Of Time, it all starts a bit slow and then gets increasingly immersive.

I'm now listening to episode 2 of the BBC dramatisation The Conscience of the Rich which is number three chronologically and the seventh in published order. Which leaves me somewhat confused.

The more I look at the synopsis of these books the more I suspect the BBC version plays quite fast and loose with the sequence - taking bits from different books in each episode, thus rendering the titles a bit misleading. Still, it's interesting to get an overview and, so far, makes me quite inclined to read the whole series.

Nigeyb wrote: "I'm now listening to episode 2 of the BBC dramatisation The Conscience of the Rich"

Finished it now - another very enjoyable episode. Roll on number 3, which is available on iPlayer after tomorrow's broadcast

Just listened to the two part BBC adaptation of The Masters


Definitely the best so far. The election of a new master in a quiet college at Cambridge University in 1937 takes on great significance with the looming Nazi threat.

Snow knew the world of the Cambridge colleges very intimately and was a fellow at Christ's College during these same years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017g...

I'll keep an eye on your opinions here, I've always imagined Snow as being a little dry and academic, not entirely sure where I got this idea from though. That and I can't help but associate him with Flanders and Swann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnbiV...

Ah. Flanders and Swann. Wonderful. I'm not sure I'd heard First And Second Law before. I love it.


Don't synthesise anything I wouldn't :-))

I am not sure how much I want to trawl through the C.P. Snow books yet, but can recommend the BBC dramatisations for a pain-free toe dip.

Back to F&S, one of the few long players my parents owned was 'At The Drop Of Another Hat'. Other stuff I recall, South Pacific, Salad Days, Oliver! and a souvenir album from a holiday in Spain.

We were big on recordings of original cast recordings of musicals

The Light and the Dark, yesterday's BBC dramatisation, was the best yet. It takes place in the midst of WW2, and there's dramatic developments aplenty. Still not sure if I'll read all the books but I feel I'm getting a very good flavour of their qualities.



'The Light and the Dark' is the fourth in time sequence of narrative (although published as the second of the series) in the 'Strangers and Brothers' series.

The story is set in Cambridge, but the plot also moves to Monte Carlo, Berlin and Switzerland. Lewis Eliot narrates the career of a childhood friend.

Roy Calvert is a brilliant but controversial linguist who is about to be elected to a fellowship.

Just caught up with the BBC adaptation of The New Men (1954). Most enjoyable.


At the time this book was published in 1954, C.P. Snow was certain that the future was being shaped by "the new men" - the men of science who'd increased human life expectancy. These men would, via science and technology, alleviate the poverty of developing nations.

The New Men of this particular book are in a race with the Nazis (and also, to an extent, the Americans and the Russians) to develop an atomic bomb.

Lewis, now established as a Civil Servant, has to balance security needs with his brother's marriage.

The tale ends with Hiroshima.

A good listen.