Clinging to the Wreckage (Masterplots II: Nonfiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: John Mortimer
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Autobiography
- Time of Work: 1923-1971
- Setting: London and Turville Heath, England
- Principal Characters: John Mortimer, Clifford Mortimer, Kathleen May Smith Mortimer, Penelope Fletcher Dimont, Penelope Gollop
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography
- Subjects: Justice, Memory, Parents and children, Marriage, Law or legislation, Novelists, Lawyers, Courts or courtrooms
Form and Content
Famous as a defense barrister at London’s Old Bailey and for his popular mystery novels and teleplays built around the character Rumpole, John Mortimer takes the same approach in writing his apologia pro vita sua that he took in conducting his defenses of unpopular figures and in relating the adventures of his fictional character. That approach, neither sympathetic nor hostile, is epitomized in Mortimer’s quotation from Albert Camus’ Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942; The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955) in the front matter of the book: “For the absurd man...
[The entire page is 2615 words long]
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