C. P. Snow, Death Under Sail

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1932

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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Death Under Sail

(1932; revised edn, 1959), C. P. Snow’s first published novel, is a detective story set on the Norfolk Broads. It is a competent example of the genre which also anticipates in some respects Snow’s subsequent non-genre fiction. Its focus on the “play of forces” (37) among a small knot of characters “in a self-contained society” (118) both conforms to one of the conventions of the classic detective story and announces an interest in group dynamics which Snow will pursue in the eleven-book “Strangers and Brothers” series (especially

The Masters

(1951) and

The Affair

(1960)) and in his post-“Strangers and Brothers” fiction (particularly

The Malcontents

(1972)).

Death Under Sail

also resembles the “Strangers and Brothers” series, and Snow’s third…

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1503 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Death Under Sail". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 October 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19404, accessed 26 November 2024.]

C. P. Snow, Death Under Sail

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