Editing English novel (section)

==20th century==
The major novelists writing in Britain at the start of the 20th century were an Irishman [[James Joyce]] (1882–1941) and two immigrants, American [[Henry James]] (1843–1916) and Pole [[Joseph Conrad]] (1857–1924){{Citation needed|reason=Joyce's first novel was not published until 1914, nor was he even living - let alone writing - in Britain during the early 20th century.|date=July 2018}}. The modernist tradition in the novel, with its emphasis "towards the ever more minute and analytic exposition of mental life", begins with James and Conrad, in novels such as ''[[The Ambassadors]]'' (1903), ''[[The Golden Bowl]]'' (1904) and ''[[Lord Jim]]'' (1900).<ref>John Carruthers, ''Scheherazade: or the Future of the English Novel'' (1928), quoted in Randall Stevenson,''Modernist Fiction: An Introduction''. (Lexington: University of Kentucky, 1992) pp. 18, 19, 22.</ref> Other important early modernists were [[Dorothy Richardson]] (1873–1957), whose novel ''Pointed Roof'' (1915), is one of the earliest example of the [[stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream of consciousness]] technique, and [[D. H. Lawrence]] (1885–1930), who wrote with understanding about the social life of the lower and middle classes and the personal life of those who could not adapt to the social norms of his time. ''[[Sons and Lovers]]'' (1913), is widely regarded as his earliest masterpiece. There followed ''[[The Rainbow]]'' (1915), though it was immediately seized by the police, and its sequel ''[[Women in Love]]'' published in 1920.<ref>''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'',  p. 562.</ref> Lawrence attempted to explore human emotions more deeply than his contemporaries and challenged the boundaries of the acceptable treatment of sexual issues, most notably in ''[[Lady Chatterley's Lover]]'', which was privately published in Florence in 1928. However, the unexpurgated version of this novel was not published until 1959.<ref>''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', p. 562.</ref> In 1922 Irishman [[James Joyce]]'s important modernist novel ''[[Ulysses (novel)|Ulysses]]'' appeared. Set during one day in [[Dublin]] in June 1904, the novel has been called "a demonstration and summation of the entire movement."<ref>Beebe, Maurice (Fall 1972). "Ulysses and the Age of Modernism". [[James Joyce Quarterly]] (University of Tulsa) 10 (1): p. 176.</ref> In it Joyce creates parallels with [[Homer]]'s [[epic poem]] the [[Odyssey]].<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'', ed. Marion Wynne-Davies. (New York: Prentice Hall, 19900, p. 644.</ref>

Another significant modernist in the 1920 was [[Virginia Woolf]] (1882–1941), who was an influential feminist, member of the [[Bloomsbury Group]], and a major stylistic innovator associated with the [[Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream-of-consciousness]] technique. Her novels include ''[[Mrs Dalloway]]'' (1925), ''[[To the Lighthouse]]'' (1927), ''[[Orlando: A Biography]]'' (1928), and ''[[The Waves]]'' (1931). Her essay collection ''[[A Room of One's Own]]'' (1929) contains her famous dictum: "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction".<ref>''The Cambridge companion to Virginia Woolf''. By Sue Roe, Susan Sellers. p. 219. Cambridge University Press, 2000.</ref>

[[File:Virginia Woolf 1927.jpg|160px|right|thumb|[[Virginia Woolf]]]]
But while [[modernism]] was to become an important literary movement in the early decades of the new century, there were also many fine novelists who were not strictly modernists. These include [[E. M. Forster]] ((1879–1970), [[John Galsworthy]] ((1867–1933) ([[Nobel Prize]] in Literature, 1932), whose novels include ''[[The Forsyte Saga]]'', [[Arnold Bennett]] (1867–1931) author of ''[[The Old Wives' Tale]]'', and [[H. G. Wells]] (1866–1946), though Forster's work is "frequently regarded as containing both modernist and Victorian elements".<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'', ed. Marion Wynne Davies (New York: Prentice Hall, 1990), p. 118.</ref>   [[E. M. Forster]]'s ''[[A Passage to India]]'' (1924), reflected challenges to imperialism, while his earlier works, such as ''[[A Room with a View]]'' (1908) and ''[[Howards End]]'' (1910), examined the restrictions and hypocrisy of [[Edwardian]] society in England. The most popular British writer of the early years of the 20th century was arguably [[Rudyard Kipling]] (1865–1936), a highly versatile [[writer of novels]], short stories and poems and to date the youngest ever recipient of the [[Nobel Prize for Literature]] (1907).

A significant English writer in the 1930s and 1940s was [[George Orwell]] (1903–50), who is especially remembered for his satires of totalitarianism, ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' (1949) and ''[[Animal Farm]]'' (1945). [[Evelyn Waugh]] (1903–66) satirised the "bright young things" of the 1920s and 1930s, notably in ''[[A Handful of Dust]]'' (1934) and ''[[Decline and Fall]]'' (1928), while  ''[[Brideshead Revisited]]'' (1945) has a theological basis, setting out to examine the effect of divine grace on its main characters.<ref>Memo dated 18 February 1947 from Evelyn Waugh to [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]], reproduced in {{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2004/may/22/classics.film#down | title = Waugh versus Hollywood | date = 22 May 2004 | author = [[Giles Foden]] | newspaper = The Guardian | page = 34 }}</ref> Irishwoman and Bloomsbury Group member [[Elizabeth Bowen]] is known for her novels about the Irish Protestant gentry, such as ''[[The Death of the Heart]]'' (1938) and London during World War II bombing raids, ''[[The Heat of the Day]]'' (1948). [[Aldous Huxley]] (1894–1963) published his famous [[dystopia]] ''[[Brave New World]]'' in 1932, the same year as [[John Cowper Powys]]'s (1872–1963) ''[[A Glastonbury Romance]]''. [[Samuel Beckett]] (1906–89) published his first major work, the novel ''[[Murphy (novel)|Murphy]]'' in 1938. This same year [[Graham Greene]]'s (1904–91) first major novel ''[[Brighton Rock (novel)|Brighton Rock]]'' was published. Then in 1939 [[James Joyce]] published ''[[Finnegans Wake]]''. In this work Joyce creates a special language to express the consciousness of  a character who is dreaming.<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'',  p. 644.</ref>

[[File:DH Lawrence 1906.jpg|160px|right|thumb|[[D. H. Lawrence]], 1906]]
[[Graham Greene]] was an important novelist whose works span the 1930s to the 1980s. Greene was a convert to Catholicism and his novels explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Notable for an ability to combine serious literary acclaim with broad popularity, his novels include, ''[[The Heart of the Matter]]'' (1948), ''[[A Burnt-Out Case]]'' (1961), and ''[[The Human Factor (novel)|The Human Factor]]'' (1978). [[Evelyn Waugh]]'s (1903–1966) career also continued after World War II, and in "1961 he completed his most considerable work, a trilogy about the war entitled ''[[Sword of Honour]]''.<ref>''The Bloomsbury Guide to English Literature'', ed. Marion Wynne-Davies. (New York: Prentice Hall, 1990), p. 1008.</ref> In 1947 [[Malcolm Lowry]] published ''Under the Volcano''. One of the most influential novels of the immediate post-war period was [[William Cooper (novelist)|William Cooper]]'s (1910–2002) naturalistic ''Scenes from Provincial Life'' (1950), which was a conscious rejection of the modernist tradition.<ref>Bradbury, Malcolm. "Introduction to ''Scenes from Provincial Life''. (Macmillan, London, 1969).</ref> Other novelists writing in the 1950s and later were: [[Anthony Powell]] (1905–2000) whose twelve-volume cycle of novels ''[[A Dance to the Music of Time]]'' (1951–75), is a comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural, and military life in the mid-20th century; comic novelist [[Kingsley Amis]] is best known for his academic satire ''[[Lucky Jim]]'' (1954); [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]] laureate [[William Golding]]'s [[Allegory|allegorical]] novel ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' (1954), explores how culture created by man fails, using as an example a group of British schoolboys marooned on a deserted island. Philosopher [[Iris Murdoch]] was a prolific [[writer of novels]] that deal with such things as sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her works include ''[[Under the Net]]'' (1954), ''The Black Prince'' (1973) and ''The Green Knight'' (1993). Scottish writer [[Muriel Spark]] also began publishing in the 1950s. She pushed the boundaries of realism in her novels. Her first, ''[[The Comforters]]'' (1957), concerns a woman who becomes aware that she is a character in a novel; ''[[The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (novel)|The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie]]'' (1961), jumps forward at the end to reveal the fates that befell its characters. [[Anthony Burgess]] is especially remembered for his [[utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian novel]] ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' (1962), set in the not-too-distant future, which was made into a [[A Clockwork Orange (film)|film]] by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. In the entirely different genre of [[Gothic fantasy]] [[Mervyn Peake]] (1911–1968) published his highly successful [[Gormenghast trilogy]] between 1946 and 1959.

Immigrant authors played a major role in post-war literature. [[Doris Lessing]] (1919) from [[Southern Rhodesia]] (now [[Zimbabwe]]), published her first novel ''The Grass is Singing'' in 1950, after immigrating to England. She initially wrote about her African experiences. Lessing soon became a dominant presence in the English literary scene, frequently publishing right through the century, and won the Nobel prize for literature in 2007. [[Salman Rushdie]] (born 1947) is another among a number of post Second World War writers from the former British colonies who permanently settled in Britain. Rushdie achieved fame with ''[[Midnight's Children]]'' 1981, which was awarded both the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] and [[Booker Prize]], and named [[The Best of the Booker|Booker of Bookers]] in 1993. His most controversial novel ''[[The Satanic Verses]]'' (1989), was inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. [[V. S. Naipaul]] (1932–2018), born in [[Trinidad]], wrote among other things ''A House for Mr. Biswas'' (1961) and ''[[A Bend in the River]]'' (1979). Naipaul won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref name="nobelweb">{{cite web|url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2001/|title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 2001|publisher=Nobelprize.org}}</ref> Also from the [[West Indies]] [[George Lamming]] (1927–1922) is best remembered for ''In the Castle of the Skin'' (1953). Another important immigrant writer [[Kazuo Ishiguro]] (born 1954) was born in [[Japan]], but his parents immigrated to Britain when he was six.<ref>''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', p. 506.</ref> His works include ''[[The Remains of the Day]]'' {1989) and ''[[Never Let Me Go (novel)|Never Let Me Go]]'' (2005). Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017.<ref>https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2017/summary/ Retrieved 25 May 2024.</ref>

Scotland has in the late 20th-century produced several important novelists, including [[James Kelman]] (born 1946), who like Samuel Beckett can create humour out of the most grim situations. ''[[How Late it Was, How Late]]'' (1994), won the [[Booker Prize]] that year; [[A. L. Kennedy]] (born 1965) whose 2007 novel  ''[[Day (2007 novel)|Day]]'' was named Book of the Year in the [[Costa Book Awards]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/costa2007/story/0,,2245282,00.html|title=Perfect Day for AL Kennedy as she takes Costa book prize|work=The Guardian|date=23 January 2008|access-date=2008-01-23 | location=London | first=Mark | last=Brown}}</ref> In 2007 she won the [[Austrian State Prize for European Literature]];<ref>{{cite news|url=http://salzburg.orf.at/stories/295874/|title=Literatur-Staatspreis an Britin verliehen|work=ORF Salzburg (Austrian Broadcasting Company)|date=27 July 2008|access-date=2008-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826154616/http://salzburg.orf.at/stories/295874/|archive-date=26 August 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Alasdair Gray]] (1934–2019) whose ''[[Lanark: A Life in Four Books]]'' (1981) is a [[dystopia]]n fantasy set in his home town [[Glasgow]]. Another contemporary Scot is [[Irvine Welsh]], whose novel  ''[[Trainspotting (novel)|Trainspotting]]'' (1993), gives a brutal depiction of the lives of working class Edinburgh drug users.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080509201836/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3559283.ece Irvine Welsh plans Trainspotting prequel] ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' Retrieved 15 March 2011.</ref>

[[Angela Carter]] (1940–1992) was a novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works. Writing from the 1960s until the 1980s, her novels include, ''[[The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman]]'' (1972) and ''[[Nights at the Circus]]'' (1984). [[Margaret Drabble]] (born 1939) is a novelist, biographer, and critic, who has published from the 1960s until this century. Her older sister, [[A. S. Byatt]] (born 1936) is best known for ''[[Possession (Byatt novel)|Possession]]'' published in 1990.

Among popular novelists [[Daphne Du Maurier]] wrote ''[[Rebecca (novel)|Rebecca]]'', a mystery novel, in 1938 and [[W. Somerset Maugham]]’s (1874–1965) ''[[Of Human Bondage]]'' (1915), a strongly autobiographical novel, is generally agreed to be his masterpiece. In [[genre fiction]] [[Agatha Christie]] was an important writer of [[crime novels]], short stories, and plays, best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her successful West End theatre plays. Christie's novels include ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'' (1934), ''[[Death on the Nile]]'' (1937), and ''[[And Then There Were None]]'' (1939). Another popular writer during the Golden Age of [[detective fiction]] was [[Dorothy L. Sayers]], while [[Georgette Heyer]] created the [[historical romance]] genre.{{cn|date=February 2023}}