Great English novels set between the wars....

[davidraphael]

I'm currently reading The Remains of The Day, which is highly recommended, and was wondering which other great English novels are set between the wars.

Atonement is another good one, which also includes wartime sections.

any other favourites?

 

[lolly_loisides]

"The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate", both by Nancy Mitford. "A dance to the music of time" by Anthony Powell, and although it's set in Germany, "Goodbye to Berlin" by Christopher Isherwood.

 

[Smithy]

You cannot go past Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies" which is a satire of the young and moneyed of London society of the 30s.

Incidentally the film "Bright Young Things" was based on it.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I dunno if folks would consider this a "great" novel, but I've always found it superb: Before the Fact, by Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley). It's the source for the Hitchcock film "Suspicion," w/ Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine, which follows the book fairly closely . . . but the novel does not have the film's wildly unbelievable ending. It's one of the best jobs of characterization, both of Lina the female protagonist and of Johnnie the sociopath, that I've ever read.

 

[dhermann1]

Harold Nicolson, husband of Vita Sackville-West, wrote a very funny satirical novel about the British upper crust called "Public Faces", in 1932. Aside from taking pot shots at all sorts of human foibles, he correctly and very accurately anticipates jet airplanes and atomic bombs.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

The Gilt Kid by James Curtis was just brought to my attention, and is great. Very informative about the London underworld of the middle 1930s.

Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton is astonishingly good, and i'm told Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by the same author is very good. I'm yet to read it.

 

[Effingham]

There's also the oeuvre of P.G. Wodehouse, if you're so inclined.

 

[Puzzicato]

"The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate", both by Nancy Mitford. "A dance to the music of time" by Anthony Powell, and although it's set in Germany, "Goodbye to Berlin" by Christopher Isherwood.

Superb suggestions. Goodbye to Berlin is the one the movie/musical Cabaret is based on, isn't it?

 

[lolly_loisides]

Superb suggestions. Goodbye to Berlin is the one the movie/musical Cabaret is based on, isn't it?

Thanks.
Yes, Goodbye to Berlin was the basis of Cabaret. The novel was also adapted into a play (and movie) "I am a Camera". It's worth seeing.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

[video=youtube;KVFTVY3HQzU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVFTVY3HQzU&feature=related[/video]

Dr Who's TARDIS lands in 1930's Berlin

 

[johnbriner]

How about Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières? The story takes place during the Italian and German occupation of WW II. Also try the boy in the striped pajamas.

 

[djd]

Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham - all top notch crime fiction of the period. I'm particularly loving Allingham's Albert Campion stories at present

 

[BinkieBaumont]

I Capture The Castle - Dodie Smith

[video=youtube;QLpKo__1160]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLpKo__1160[/video]

Up At The Villa - Somerset Maugham

[video=youtube;CGVQN49xEaI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGVQN49xEaI[/video]

Mapp & Lucia - E.F Benson

[video=youtube;OU8ysRWwYmE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU8ysRWwYmE&feature=related[/video]

 

[marxalot]

In addition to Waugh's Vile Bodies (and the movie, which I force my friends to watch at every opportunity), I must recommend Brideshead Revisited, which is an excellent book in spite of its critical acclaim. Put Out More Flags, by the same author, is rather less withering in its self-satire than the other two. Wodehouse wrote some of the most readable fiction penned this century, but I'm not sure if his work would be termed 'great' by any but his greatest fans. I might, but, well, refer to previous sentence.

 

[MikeBravo]

In addition to Waugh's Vile Bodies (and the movie, which I force my friends to watch at every opportunity), I must recommend Brideshead Revisited, which is an excellent book in spite of its critical acclaim. Put Out More Flags, by the same author, is rather less withering in its self-satire than the other two. Wodehouse wrote some of the most readable fiction penned this century, but I'm not sure if his work would be termed 'great' by any but his greatest fans. I might, but, well, refer to previous sentence.

I must be one of his greatest fans. I was about to recommend anything by Evelyn Waugh

 

[BinkieBaumont]

My favourite E.W is 'Handfull Of Dust'

[video=youtube;qMZ58AdqvW8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMZ58AdqvW8[/video]

[video=youtube;E2AMw2NxCBk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2AMw2NxCBk&feature=related[/video]

 

[davidraphael]

Just finished Atonement again. Really great book.
Next up: When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, set in 1930s Shanghai. I've been in Shanghai and visited some of the deco hotels, so I hope it'll be an interesting read.

thanks for all the other great tips here.

 

[Apple Annie]

As someone posted the wonderful Christopher and his Kind clip, has anyone read any Christopher Isherwood? I was contemplating getting my hands on something, so any recommendations would be great.

Also, another EW plug. I was very disappointed when in my first year of university no beautiful young rich boy threw up in through my bedroom window.