(1967) was the second novel by Laura Del-Rivo (b. 1934), appearing six years after her first,
The Furnished Room(1961) – a long gap for an emergent writer. Three years later
Daffodilappeared in a Pan paperback edition as
Animals(1970), Del-Rivo’s preferred title, which signals the animal imagery that recurs throughout the novel.
Daffodil contrasts two protagonists, Jacob Hardcastle and Maggie Easterbrook, by presenting slices of their lives, which sometimes intertwine, from the 1940s into the 1960s. Jacob, ambitious, optimistic, hard-driving, drops out of school and a conventional career path but still retains, like his father, a “hard-headed […] work ethic” (191) and becomes a successful writer and controversialist. Maggie, self-deprecating,
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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Daffodil on the Pavement". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35052, accessed 26 November 2024.]
