(2010), Martin Amis's twelfth novel, received much advance publicity, some of it stimulated by Amis himself. In contrast to the more usual scenario in which an author denies that his fiction contains any autobiographical elements or likenesses of persons living or dead, Amis seems to have positively invited interpretations of

which link it to his own life and that of his sister, the late Sally Amis (1954-2000). He also provided, prior to the novel's publication, a statement of what he sees as its main theme: the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and the way in which it placed burdens on women which still have to be fully worked through. The novel's title, and the first of its three epigraphs, is taken from a book by Russian…

5455 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "The Pregnant Widow". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 February 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28521, accessed 26 November 2024.]

• View recommended reading for this article