(1938) is a prose work by the English critic Cyril Connolly (1903-74), consisting of three parts, of which the third and longest, “A Georgian Boyhood”, is an autobiographical reminiscence of Connolly’s schooldays, while the first two offer provocative and richly quotable reflections on the evolution of the literary “modern movement” in the early twentieth century, and on the various ways in which a modern young writer’s “promise” may be squandered. The book is one of the more important documents of the younger English literary generation of the 1930s, comparable in some parts with Christopher Isherwood’s
Lions and Shadows(1938) and in others with George Orwell’s essay “Inside the Whale” (1940). It offers a lively account of that generation’s…
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Citation: Baldick, Chris. "Enemies of Promise". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 August 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13635, accessed 21 November 2024.]
