Published in 1961, it was the first volume of what Richard Hughes described as “a sort of War and Peace” for the twentieth century: a huge work to be called “The Human Predicament.” Richard Hughes occupied a singular position in English letters. His 1929 novel A High Wind in Jamaica had been a best seller and a critical success on both sides of the Atlantic, and had introduced the world to an unsentimental but intensely poetic sensibility. His oblique, pared-down story about children in the hands of pirates had challenged pious assumptions about childhood sexuality, and had been denounced by one anonymous critic as “horrible and cruel and disgusting.” Others, however, had been dazzled by its perceptiveness and the freshness of its writing. Images of power and wit seemed to bubble from the author’s pen. This was a false impression. Hughes wrote slowly, and with great labor, drafting and redrafting, testing each phrase for balance and euphony, selecting each word for its optimum range of meanings and its penumbral allusiveness.
What do You think about The Fox In The Attic (2012)?
