Bright Day (1946)
J.B. Priestley
Book Description
Gregory Dawson, a middle-aged and disillusioned writer, is holed up in a Cornish hotel working on a film script he must finish. A chance encounter with an old acquaintance in the bar sends him back to the England of 1913, when he was just eighteen and longed to enter the seemingly magical world of the glamorous Alington family and its three lovely daughters. Replaying the events of those days in his mind, Dawson relives a long-forgotten story that ended with a mysterious tragedy whose effects linger on in the present and threaten to shatter his placid existence . . .
In the vein of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, J. B. Priestley’s Bright Day (1946) is one of his finest works and his own favorite of his novels, a haunting and unforgettable evocation of a vanished England as yet unravaged by the devastation of two world wars.
J.B. Priestley
Book Description
Gregory Dawson, a middle-aged and disillusioned writer, is holed up in a Cornish hotel working on a film script he must finish. A chance encounter with an old acquaintance in the bar sends him back to the England of 1913, when he was just eighteen and longed to enter the seemingly magical world of the glamorous Alington family and its three lovely daughters. Replaying the events of those days in his mind, Dawson relives a long-forgotten story that ended with a mysterious tragedy whose effects linger on in the present and threaten to shatter his placid existence . . .
In the vein of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, J. B. Priestley’s Bright Day (1946) is one of his finest works and his own favorite of his novels, a haunting and unforgettable evocation of a vanished England as yet unravaged by the devastation of two world wars.
reviews
“One of the best of J. B. Priestley’s novels . . . provides an opportunity to revalue a writer not merely hugely popular in his own day but also, with more than 100 titles to his credit, hugely prolific.” - Francis King, The Spectator
“A glow of the magic of poignant rediscovery.” - Kirkus Reviews
“I do not think Priestley has ever written anything better than this book.” - News Chronicle
“A glow of the magic of poignant rediscovery.” - Kirkus Reviews
“I do not think Priestley has ever written anything better than this book.” - News Chronicle
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BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1954321252 ISBN-13: 978-1954321250 $34.99 US, 290 pp. Case Laminate Hardcover Published 2019 BOOK DETAILS
ISBN: 1948405377 ISBN-13: 978-1948405379 $19.99 US, 290 pp. Trade paper Published 2019 |
Due to copyright restrictions, this title is only available to customers in the U.S. and Canada.
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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
John Boynton Priestley was born in 1894 in Yorkshire, the son of a schoolmaster. After leaving Belle Vue School when he was 16, he worked in a wool office but was already by this time determined to become a writer. He volunteered for the army in 1914 during the First World War and served five years; on his return home, he attended university and wrote articles for the Yorkshire Observer. After graduating, he established himself in London, writing essays, reviews, and other nonfiction, and publishing several miscellaneous volumes. In 1927 his first two novels appeared, Adam in Moonshine and Benighted. In 1929 Priestley scored his first major critical success as a novelist, winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Good Companions. Angel Pavement (1930) followed and was also extremely successful. Throughout the next several decades, Priestley published numerous novels, many of them very popular and successful, including Bright Day (1946), and Lost Empires (1965), and was also a prolific and highly regarded playwright.
Priestley died in 1984, and though his plays have continued to be published and performed since his death, much of his fiction has unfortunately fallen into obscurity. Recently, some of his most famous novels have been reprinted in England by Great Northern Books; Valancourt Books is republishing Benighted and Priestley’s excellent collection of weird short stories The Other Place (1953).
For more information on J.B. Priestley, visit the official website at http://www.jbpriestley.co.uk/JBP/Home.html or the website for the J.B. Priestley Society at http://www.jbpriestleysociety.com/.
Priestley died in 1984, and though his plays have continued to be published and performed since his death, much of his fiction has unfortunately fallen into obscurity. Recently, some of his most famous novels have been reprinted in England by Great Northern Books; Valancourt Books is republishing Benighted and Priestley’s excellent collection of weird short stories The Other Place (1953).
For more information on J.B. Priestley, visit the official website at http://www.jbpriestley.co.uk/JBP/Home.html or the website for the J.B. Priestley Society at http://www.jbpriestleysociety.com/.