Novelists Against Social Change studies the writing of John Buchan, Dornford Yates and Angela Thirkell to show how these conservative authors put their fears and anxieties into their best-selling fiction. Resisting the threats of change in social class, politics, the freedom of women, and professionalization produced their strongest works.

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Reviews

'This volume is to be welcomed as a significant addition to this developing field of study. Kate Macdonald has produced a careful and well-grounded account of the work of three important writers in the middlebrow tradition. The book offers an original and refreshingly accessible analysis of these authors, examining their status as major figures in popular fiction, but also providing a nuanced and sensitive critique of their novels within the socio-cultural context of their times. Students of twentieth-century popular culture will find Dr Macdonald an astute and readable critic in this authoritative guide to the best-loved fiction of the time.' - Rob Spence, Edge Hill University, UK

Authors and Affiliations

University of Ghent, Belgium

Kate Macdonald

About the author

Kate Macdonald teaches British literature and publishing history in the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading, UK. She researches twentieth-century British book culture, publishing history and popular reading, on which she has published widely.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Novelists Against Social Change
Book Subtitle: Conservative Popular Fiction, 1920-1960
Authors: Kate Macdonald
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-45772-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature Collection, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-45771-4Published: 11 August 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-56790-4Due: 14 January 2014
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-45772-1Published: 22 February 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 271
Topics: Twentieth-Century Literature, British and Irish Literature, Fiction, Development and Social Change, Literary History

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book