The Ice Age (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Margaret Drabble
- First Published: 1977
- Type of Work: Social chronicle
- Time of Work: The mid-1970’s, with flashbacks to earlier periods, especially the decade preceding the action of the novel
- Setting: Yorkshire, London, other locations in England, and Wallacia, “a Balkan country well behind the Iron Curtain”
- Principal Characters: Anthony Keating, Alison Murray, Len Wincobank, Maureen Kirby, Jane Murray
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Satire
- Subjects: Values, 1970’s, Self-discovery, Current events, Philosophy or philosophers, Communism or communists, Prisoners, Prisons, Religion, God, Adultery, Bankruptcy or financial crisis, Faith, Ethics, Property, Economic conditions, Diseases, Real estate, Investments or investors, Fraud, Great Britain, Ice Age
- Locales: England, Balkans, Wallacia (fictive)
The Novel
How does one behave when the age of faith is past and when economic recession undercuts one’s efforts to create an earthly paradise? How does one make responsible choices in an Ice Age in which the innocent and guilty alike suffer catastrophe and where human endeavor too often seems futile?
For Anthony Keating, responsible conduct if such is possible seems to depend not so much on conscious choices as on an instinctive awareness of his kinship with all the vulnerable creatures of the globe. Anthony recognizes this kinship at the opening of the novel, when he...
[The entire page is 3190 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
