C. P. Snow was a British novelist and scientist whose work frequently explored the collision between two cultures: the humanities and science. He became particularly renowned for his novels, which delve into the moral dilemmas and societal workings within the educated elite. Snow himself often highlighted society's failure to grasp the interconnectedness of scientific and literary thought. His prose is marked by an analytical perspective on human motivations and social structures, offering readers a profound insight into the complexities of intellectual and political life.
Economic storm clouds gather as bad political weather is forecast for the nation. Three elderly peers look on from the sidelines of the House of Lords and wonder if it will mean the end of a certain way of life. Against this background is set a court struggle over a disputed will that escalates into an almighty battle.
A collection of traditional short stories translated from Hungarian to English.
This story told in the first person starts with a child’s interest in the night sky. A telescope starts a lifetime’s interest in science. The narrator goes up to King’s College, London to study. As a fellow at Cambridge he embarks on love affairs and searches for love at the same time as career success. Finally, contentment in love exhausts his passion for research.
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.
The penultimate novel in the 'Strangers and Brothers' series takes Goya's theme of monsters that appear in our sleep. The sleep of reason here is embodied in the ghastly murders of children that involve torture and sadism.
The prize-winning fifth book in C. P. Snow's Strangers and Brothers sequence. Set in 1937, it follows the struggle for the mastership of a Cambridge college.
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.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.
Homecomings is the sixth in the Strangers and Brothers series and sequel to Time of Hope. This complete story in its own right follows Lewis Eliot's life through World War II. After his first wife's death his work at the Ministry assumes a larger role. It is not until his second marriage that Eliot is able to commit himself emotionally.
It is the onset of World War II in the fifth in the Strangers and Brothers series. A group of Cambridge scientists are working on atomic fission. But there are consequences for the men who are affected by it. Hiroshima also causes mixed personal reactions.
