Charles percy

SNOW

_{( 1905-1980)}

C. P Snow is one of the most outstanding realistic writers of 20th century's Engi<Jnd.

He W<JS born in Leicester in 1905, the second of the four sons. Snow's father was <J clerk in a shoe factory. Charles was educated in Alderm<Jn Newton Gramm<Jr School, where, in the sixth form, he specialized in science. Later he worked as a laboratory assistant at the same school, while studying for a university scholarship. At Leicester Univer­ sity College in 1927 he took a First Glass Honours degree in chemistry After that he worked on molecular physics and became a Fellow of Christ's College in 1930. When World War II broke out, Snow joined the Civil Service and was engaged in selecting scientific personnel.

Alongside with his public activities Snow devoted him­ self to literature. His first novel was a detective story Death Under Sail ( 1932).

Literary fame came to Snow when in 1940 he started

publishing <J series of novels under the general title of

Strangers and Brothers.

In took him more than a quarter of a century to finish his work comprising eleven novels, the most important ones being: The Light and the Dark ( 1947 ), Time of Hope (1949). The Conscience of the Rich (1958), The Affair (1960), Corrridors of Power (1964). His last novel of the series was finished in 1970, it is called Last Things. The title of the series came from the title of the first novel,

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Stangers and Brothers (1940). It is about George Passant, a qualified clerk in a solicitor's firm. His strong perso­ nality makes him the focus of a group of young people who follow him. The life of George Passant is tragic; he is an idealist, who believes in man and society, and the ability of man to live in freedom. But his best dreams are frustrated and life shows its darker side.

The title ot the series is highly symbolic People arc "strangers" if they live alone, isolated from their envi­ ronment. But there is something uniting all of them. griefs Clnd sorrows, happiness and joy which make all of them "brothers" The limits ot fhese notions are yery frail. for today's "strangers" may become tomorrow's "brothers" and vice versa. Thus the main problems of all the novels are as follows: what makes people brothers? What should a man do to survive in a hostile world?

All these novels are united by one main character,

Lewis Eliot. Through him Snow set out to examine ;111d portray the life of an English man in the post- World War I years. Eliot is clearly a man of modern society he is ambitious, anxious to gain comfort and power He un­ derstands that to achieve these he rnust struggle and compromise.

Snow is realistic in his description of the vast laby·

rinths of a bureaucratic society where the individual if he has no guidance, has to look for the way out himself He is a master of the social portrait, too. In his series of novels he creates a gallery of typical representatives of all the strata of contemporary society

TIME OF HOPE

The most important novel ot the series, poss1bly the key one, is Time of Hope, which helps the reader to understand the most subtle aspects of Eliot's psychology In this novel Lewis Eliot tells his own story of his childhood, his hopes and dreams. Eliot comes from a lower middle-class family possessing great ambitions and aspirations. His mother's strongest desire is that her son should do well and rise in the world.

Time of Hope is a novel of self-discovery It 1s in love

that Lewis sees the deepest relationship between human beings. However, first in his love for his mother and then in his love for his wive he realizes that he was wrong. His mother, vain and pompous, yet passionately anxious for his

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future success in life, loves him without restraint, but he is unable to respond in the same manner The possessiveness of her love makes him weak and uncertain.

After his mother's death his ambitions take an unex­ pected turn. He gives up his job in a local government office and takes up law. He is quite successful. But by the time he is 28 he understands that he has not achieved what

he wanted and that his career has been ruined by his un­

successful marriage.

Thus, in Time of Hope, as in other novels, Snow in­ vestigates the problem of ambition. Ambition, according to Snow, is a part of man's nature, but in weak characters it turns merely into desire for success. This is what happens to Lewis Eliot. At first his ambition seems to be no more

than an ordinary wish for fame and success. Later he un­ derstands that this is not enough. Snow's merit as a critical realist lies in the fact that he shows very convin­ cingly the evolution of Eliot's character, the change in his outlook on life and his attitude towards the world. By the end of the novel Lewis Eliot has discovered what is wrong with the society he lives in and that gives him some hope, for he understands now what he is to do.

The following extract, taken from Time of Hope, tells of

Eliot's last meeting with his mother

... My mother's head and shoulders had been propped up by pillows, in order to make her breathing easier- so that, asleep or awake, she was half-silting, and when I drew up a chair that Sunday morning, her eyes

looked down into mine...

Then she said, heavily: "I don't want to stay like this. Just like an old sack. It wouldn't do for me, would it?"

Fur once, I found my tongue. I told her that she was looking hand·

some.

She was delighted. She preened herself like a girl, and said: "I'm

<::lad of that, dear"

...1 tried to console her I !old her that, whatever I did, I should carry my chidhood with me: always I should hear her speaking, I should re· member the evenings by the front-room fire, when she urged me on as a little boy Yet afterwards I never believed that I brought her comfort. She was the proudest of women, and she was vain ...

A new stage in Snow's literary career began with the publication of Corridors of Power ( 1964). It presents a gal­ lery of people governing Britain and responsible for its fate and policy, its manipulations in the field of atomic energy,

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the struggle of different parties for power, for the manufac­

ture of rockets of a new type.

The novel starts with the events of 1955 when the Con­ servatives came to power, and develops further during the Suez campaign. Together with Eliot who reached the hig­ hest place on the social ladder, the reader visits Parlia­ ment, listens to the speeches of its members, becomes

a witness to lobby talks. The central figure of this novel is a young politician, Rodger Quaife. Being a sober-minded realistic man, he understands well the absurdity of Britain's participation in the productiort of nuclear wea­ pons. He wants to reach the post of prime-minister in order to prevent the cuuntry from any such action. But realistic ideas are doomed in a country whose political leaders do not think of the people, but only of profits and military advancement.

Corridors of Power is a fine work of critical realism that clearly shows the policy of the leading capitalist countries.

Snow's last novels are A Coal of Varnish ( 1979) and

The Physicists ( 1980). !lCoat of Varnich is a detective

story. It centres round the murder of an old aristocratic lady Yet it is not a novel merely of entertainment. Snow

exposes the hypocrisy, falsehood and immorality of the upper class of England which are concealed under refined manners and elegance. Sncw's novels are remarkable for their imaginative power, their vivid situations and precise

recording of political events. His main interest lies in

showing the inner world of the sharacters. The structure and the plot of his works are always subordinated to two

important points: politics and private life.

I. \\'II; lllc writer's task. accordill!-: to C. P nowl 2. Exptai11 tile idea contained in the title of C. P Snow's series of novels Strangers and Brothers. 3. What is the subject of the novel Time of Hopel 4. Why is C. P Snow's novel Corridors uf Power considered a masterpiece of critic ! rcalisml 5. What do the novel A Coal of Varnish exposel

"THE !lNGRY YOUNG MEN"

The English literature of the 1950s tended to relied some of the difficulties facing the younger generation of the time.

Disillusionment and scepticism had become the main

features of the young post-war generation. Those young-

sters stood up against bourgeois morals, protested angrily against reality and tried to find new aims in life. The literature of the 50s reflected the "anger" of the voung. The writers who dwelt on this problem became known as "the angry young men"

The representatives of this group were Kingsley Amis,

John Braine, John Osborne, John Wain, and many others. These young writers did not put forward a definite pro· gramme that could unite them. They did not even consider themselves as belonging to the same trend. What made them a group was their "hero" They all chose for their main character an intelligent young man from the lower middle class; he had a university education, but was unable to find his place in a society that was suffering from class contradictions.

Thus the characters in the novels and plays written by "the angry young men" were a true-to-life reflection of post-war English society and the thoughts and hopes of the young people of England. They showed the bitter disap­ pointment of the young people who graduated from "red· brick"* universities, but because of the growing unemploy­ ment could not even find proper jobs and worked as sweet­ shop managers, window-cleaners, hospital orderlies, chauffeurs. This disillusionment and disbelief in the future made them feel betrayed and lost and brought about their angry protests against everything and everybody. The weak point of the protests lay in their futility. The reb­ ellion of the "angry young men" would not have been so fruitless, if they understood what it was directed against. All their attempts to fight the existing order got them nowhere. It is interesting to note that the works of the "angry young men" appeared in different genres of Eng­ lish literature- in drama, prose and poetry.

• "Red-brick" Universities are situated in provincial towns. They were built after World War II, and in comparison with such ci\adels of con­ servati m as Oxford and Cambridge are more democratic.