Francis King Criticism
Francis King, born in 1923 in Switzerland, is a distinguished English novelist, short story writer, and poet. He has contributed significantly to modern literature with over forty works, often centering on character exploration in diverse global settings. Known for his "dark" and sometimes satirical style, King employs humor and perversity to delve into the complexities of human eccentricities and human frailty.
King's writing often reflects his experiences as an expatriate and his life’s encounters across various cultures, informed by his tenure with the British Council in countries like Italy, Greece, and Japan. His fiction frequently addresses themes of family relationships and sexual identity, with some works, such as The Firewalkers, openly addressing homosexuality at a time when such topics were controversial.
His major works, including Secret Lives and Ash on an Old Man's Sleeve, use interpersonal relationships as catalysts for personal transformation, exploring themes like jealousy, obsession, and emotional isolation. Punishments and Only the Lonely are notable for their exploration of personal and cultural reconciliations.
King's style is characterized by incisive psychological descriptions, although some critics find his prose loose or his plots implausible. Despite these critiques, his work is praised for its keen observations and deep emotional insights. As noted by Martin Seymour-Smith, King is considered one of England's finest fiction writers, with his work illuminated by acts of human decency and valor amidst darker themes.
Contents
- Principal Works
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King, Francis (Vol. 145)
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The Firewalkers
(summary)
In the following review of The Firewalkers, Everson comments favorably on the novel's writing and on the character Cedric. He warns readers that although the novel was reissued in the Gay Modern Classics series, it does not treat homosexuality as a subject.
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Mischief That Is Past
(summary)
In the following review of Frozen Music, Profumo asserts that although King's prose is looser here than in his short stories, the narrated novella succeeds in its exploration of a father and son coming to terms with the past.
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A Death in India
(summary)
In the following review, Seymour-Smith praises the structure and depth of Frozen Music.
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The Sport of a Mad Mother
(summary)
In the following review of The Woman Who Was God, Glazebrook asserts that King includes too much detail and too many fleeting characters in his novel. However, Glazebrook does praise King's well-constructed narrative.
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The Haunter and the Haunted
(summary)
In the following review of The Woman Who Was God, Lesser criticizes what she perceives as King's lack of empathy for his characters, especially Ruth St. Just, and maintains that the too-clever plot does not allow readers to know or identify with Ruth.
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A Dark and Troubling Business
(summary)
In the following review of Punishments, Lezard claims that the novel's principal drawback is its simplistic plot, but that this simplicity is made up for by the depth of the Michael Gregg character and by King's refusal to provide the reader with clear answers.
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Punishments
(summary)
In the following review of Punishments, Abel briefly describes what she feels are the two “punishments” found in the novel. Punishments by Francis King is a subtle, thoughtfully planned novel in which a strong under-stated theme underlies the plot. A young medical student, Michael, recounts his experiences during a journey to Germany almost immediately after the second world war, in the company of a number of other English university students. They are to stay in the homes of German undergraduates. Theirs is a voyage of reconciliation and Michael later calls it a journey ‘into a knowledge of others—and, more important, into a knowledge of myself’. His narrative is set between two brief passages dated 1981, although the experiences which he describes, with hindsight, occurred in 1948.
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Botni for All
(summary)
In the following review of Visiting Cards, Fitton praises the novel, despite his questions about its unlikely premise. Visiting Cards, a jocose novel about the conference procedures of a World Association of Authors (WAA), by a former world president of PEN, contains much salutary sending-up of the scheming (and screwing) that seems to accompany worthy international gatherings. The donnée may appear all too familiar; the writers’ conference novel, or memoir, may even be a symptom of writer's block. In the practised hands of Francis King, however, some liveliness is imparted to well-worn themes and a pleasant enough tale emerges from rather unpromising material.
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The PEN Is Mightier Than the Word
(summary)
In the following review of Visiting Cards, Illis notes that there is a serious side to King's comic novel.
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Internal Combustion
(summary)
In the following review of The Ant Colony, Binding finds honesty and objectivity in King's satirical novel about the British Institute in Florence at the end of World War II.
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Name-Droppers
(summary)
In the following review of The Ant Colony, Sage examines King's treatment of his characters, especially Jack and Iris.
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Expatriates Gossiping in Florence
(summary)
In the following review of The Ant Colony, Illis writes that despite the many likeable characters in the novel, the story is not compelling.
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Only the Lonely
(summary)
In the following review of Secret Lives: Three Novellas, Davenport-Hines judges King's novella, a tale of emotional isolation, as the strongest in the collection, which also includes novellas by Tom Wakefield and Patrick Gale. By far the most arresting of the three novellas in this collection is that by Francis King [Secret Lives] which gives the volume its title. This tells the story of a poor Japanese painter named Osamu who comes to London to escape a forced marriage, and becomes the houseboy and lover of a QC, Sir Brian Cobean. The latter is an elegant, persuasive, ruthless, stealthy homosexual who has ruined his wife's life and lives in the grandeur of Holland Park. He falls ill with pneumonia, loses weight, tells his family he has leukaemia, eventually dies of meningitis. Osamu nurses Brian, holds him as he dies, then faces the cold, stilted family and friends who seem never to have suspected the secret life of the dead man.
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Coexistences
(summary)
In the following review of Secret Lives: Three Novellas, Binding praises King's title novella for its portrayal of characters carrying burdensome secrets and of a man dying of AIDS.
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Places and Friends He Still Can Recall
(summary)
In the following review of Yesterday Came Suddenly, Lively commends King's memoir, which she feels is an engaging and moving work, in large part because of King's use of anecdotes and lengthy dialogue segments.
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Words Break the Pain Barrier
(summary)
In the following review of Yesterday Came Suddenly, Fitzgerald summarizes King's autobiography, commenting on its story-like quality and on King's modesty in relation to his achievements.
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Wasp at Large
(summary)
In the following review of Yesterday Came Suddenly, Keates praises King's “busy, populous chronicle of a literary life.”
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Memories Are Made of This
(summary)
In reviewing King's Yesterday Came Suddenly alongside Giles Gordon's Aren't We Due a Royalty Statement? and William Trevor's Excursions in the Real World, Beer concludes that King's “detached” prose style serves Yesterday Came Suddenly well.
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Criminal Connections
(summary)
In the following review of The One and Only, Woods criticizes what he views as overwritten passages, but states that the story is “well told” and unique.
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Ash on an Old Man's Sleeve
(summary)
In the following review of Ash on an Old Man's Sleeve, Godfrey-Faussett objects to the novel's “confessional style” and to its forced imagery.
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Love in a Hot Climate
(summary)
In the following review of Ash on an Old Man's Sleeve, Scammell praises the novel's treatment of sexuality.
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People of a Certain Age
(summary)
In the following review of A Hand at the Shutter, Smith comments on King's “sly” storytelling and on the brave female characters found in this collection of stories.
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Sicilian Overtures
(summary)
In the following review of Dead Letters, Haigh takes issue with the main plot, which concerns Prince Stefano and Steve's relationship.
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The Firewalkers
(summary)
- King, Francis (Vol. 8)
- Further Reading
Criticism by Francis King
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Despairing
Graham Greene Criticism
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More Incident than an Egyptian Soap
Naguib Mahfouz Criticism
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Venetian Lark
Muriel Spark Criticism
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'Arping On
The World According to Garp Criticism
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Variations on a Simple Theme
Kenzaburō Ōe Criticism
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The Doubtful Wisdom of Eeyore
Kenzaburō Ōe Criticism
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Splinters and Doodles
Sam Shepard Criticism
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Fairy Tale
John Irving Criticism
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Experiments
Shūsaku Endō Criticism
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Shimmering
Kazuo Ishiguro Criticism
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Held by the Dead Hand of a Dictator
Georges Perec Criticism
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A Highly Amusing Shambles
Mordecai Richler Criticism
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A Ghastly Crew
Yann Martel Criticism
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Love's Spell and Black Magic
Iris Murdoch Criticism
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In Greeneland
Robert Stone Criticism
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The Tragedy of a Valour-Ruined Man
Robert Stone Criticism
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The Older the Better
Peter Ackroyd Criticism
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Awkward Age
Margaret Drabble Criticism
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Fairly Excellent Woman
Barbara Pym Criticism
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Look Lively
Penelope Lively Criticism
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Too Much Goes into a Best Cellar
Michèle Roberts Criticism
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Fantasy Lives
Bobbie Ann Mason Criticism
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Uneasy Lies the Head of OPEN
Michael Frayn Criticism
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Pretty Bubbles in the Air
Michael Frayn Criticism
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The House of the Prophet
Louis Auchincloss Criticism
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Ties of Blood
Bruce Chatwin Criticism
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In and Out of the Lap of Luxury
Bohumil Hrabal Criticism
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Obstetricks
Fay Weldon Criticism
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What a Marvel!
Hortense Calisher Criticism
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Witty
Ian Hamilton Criticism
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Harmony Triumphantly Achieved
Andreï Makine Criticism
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Zest for Life
Rhys Davies Criticism
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Nostalgia for the Mud
Jim Crace Criticism
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Neato
Herbert Gold Criticism
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Victimised
Brian Moore Criticism
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Potent
Shiva Naipaul Criticism
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Stylishness
Lawrence Durrell Criticism
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Laughter and Tears
Shena Mackay Criticism
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Painters and Self-Portraits
Alison Lurie Criticism
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Bookerabile?
William Boyd Criticism
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Professional, Foul
Malcolm Bradbury Criticism
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Born in Bits
Bernard Mac Laverty Criticism
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Fantastic
Jennifer Johnston Criticism
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Elephantine
M(ary) M(argaret) Kaye Criticism