The Night Travellers (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Elizabeth Spencer
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1940’s to the 1970’s
- Setting: Kingsbury, North Carolina; Bennington, Vermont; Montreal, Canada; rural Canada north of Ottawa; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Principal Characters: Mary Kerr Harbison Blaise, Kate McCanless Harbison Davis, Fred Davis, Jefferson (“Jeff”) Blaise, Kathy Blaise, Estes Drover
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Self-discovery, Tradition, Suicide, Canada or Canadians, Dancing or dancers, Wealth, Refugees, Vietnam or Vietnamese people, Activism
- Locales: Philadelphia, PA, Montreal, Canada, Bennington, VT, Kingsbury, NC
In all of her novels and short stories, Elizabeth Spencer has been particularly interested in the conflicting needs of individuals for security and for freedom. On one hand, Spencer’s characters recognize the value of belonging, which for many comes through an established family with an established tradition. On the other hand, even those born with an assured place in society may feel smothered, while those who because of circumstances or temperament feel themselves to be outsiders in a stable society generally flee from that society. In The Night Travellers, Spencer once again...
[The entire page is 2027 words long]
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