Margaret Drabble

Margaret Drabble's The Millstone was published in 1965. Set in a London not yet quite swinging, where sexual liberation is still on its way, this prize-winning novel follows the progress of Rosamund Stacey, who becomes pregnant as a result of a one night stand, and must adapt to life as a single mother - finding herself transformed in the process.

Anna is a child of special, unknowable qualities. She is a happy child, always willing to smile at the world around her. But she also presents profound challenges. For her mother Jess, still in her early twenties, living alone in North London and hoping to embark on an adventurous career, her arrival will prove life-transforming.

Arnold Bennett was born in a street called Hope Street. A street less hopeful it would be hard to imagine. Thus begins Margaret Drabbles biography of a man whose most famous achievement was to re-create, in such novels as The Old Wives Taleand Clayhanger, the life, atmosphere and character of the Five Towns region in which he was born and grew up.Arnold Bennett is a very personal book. What interests me, writes the author, is Bennetts background, his childhood and origins, for they are very similar to my own. My mothers family came from the Potteries, and the Bennett novels seem to me to portray a way of life that still existed when I was a child, and indeed persists in certain areas. So like all books this has been partly an act of self-exploration.Of Bennett as a writer Drabble says The best books I think are very fine indeed, on the highest level, deeply moving, original and dealing with material that I had never before encountered in fiction, but only in life: I feel they have been underrated, and my response to them is so constant, even after years of work on them and constant re-readings, that I want to communicate enthusiasm.Of Bennett as a man she paints an affectionate portrait, not glossing over the irritability, dyspepsia and rigidity which at times made him so difficult a companion but reminding us too of his honesty, kindliness and sensitivity. Many a time, she writes at the end of the book, re-reading a novel, reading a letter or a piece of his Journal, I have wanted to shake his hand, or to thank him, to say well done. I have written this instead.

"Francesca Stubbs pasa de los setenta, pero aún goza de salud, y aunque hace tiempo que debería estar jubilada, trabaja gustosa para una institución benéfica que ofrece asistencia a ancianos que se enfrentan a penurias de todo tipo. Las personas que la rodean tambien se ven abocadas a luchar por salvaguardar la dignidad en el ultimo tramo de su existencia, una existencia que mas que disfrutarse,se sobrelleva. La obra de Drabble es tan valiente y hermosa porque lleva a cabo la revolucionaria idea de tratar a los ancianos como personas, porque habla desde la comprension y el amor. Una novela que plantea que es una buena vida y, por lo tanto, que es una buena muerte."

El título de La piedra de moler es una cita del Evangelio (Mateo, 18, 6), el símbolo de una pesada carga. La protagonista de esta novela, una joven brillante que prepara su docto­rado sobre el soneto isa­belino en el swinging London de la década de 1960, se queda embarazada del hombre con quien tiene relaciones sexuales por primera y única vez. Tras las primeras dudas, decide seguir adelante con el embarazo y dar a luz sin pareja, sin casarse, sin decirle nada al padre de la criatura. Una compleja reflexión sobre lo que significa tanto la independencia como la necesidad de los demás.

Francesca Stubbs pasa de los setenta, pero aún goza de salud, y aunque hace tiempo que debería estar jubilada, trabaja gustosa para una institución benéfica que ofrece asistencia a ancianos que se enfrentan a penurias de todo tipo. Las personas que la rodean tambien se ven abocadas a luchar por salvaguardar la dignidad en el ultimo tramo de su existencia, una existencia que mas que disfrutarse, se sobrelleva. La obra de Drabble es tan valiente y hermosa porque lleva a cabo la revolucionaria idea de tratar a los ancianos como personas, porque habla desde la comprension y el amor. Una novela que plantea que es una buena vida y, por lo tanto, que es una buena muerte.

Humphrey and Ailsa met as children, by the grey Northern sea to which they are returning. Humphrey was already a serious child, drawn towards the underwater world of marine biology, but there were as yet few signs of Ailsa's dazzling transformation into a flamboyant feminist celebrity. The novel traces the evolution of their careers and their passionately entangled relationship, and brings them together again to see what they will make of their past, and in what spirit they will be able to face the future.

Edited by Margaret DrabbleAn institution since 1932, the newly revised fifth edition of the standard reference to English literature and its writers, origins, cultural context, criticism, and European influences features sixteen new articles on literary concepts and genres. UP.The first edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature, edited by Sir Paul Harvey, was published in 1932, and quickly established itself as as the standard source of reference for scholars, students, and general readers alike. In 1985, under the editorship of Margaret Drabble, the text was thoroughly and sensitively revised to bring it up to date without losing its essential character, or the lightness of touch that made it such a pleasure to dip into. The sixth edition, published in 2000, was extensively revised, expanded, and updated. Almost 600 new entries covered new writers, genres, and issues, and existing entries were reworked to incorporate the latest scholarship. The text was written by a team of more than 140 contributors under Margaret Drabble's editorial direction, including Brian Aldiss, Lisa Appignanesi, Jonathan Coe, Penelope Fitzgerald, Roy Porter, and Salman Rushdie. In addition to the extensive coverage of writers, works, literary theory, allusions, and characters, there are sixteen featured entries on key topics including black British literature, fantasy fiction, and modernism. The Companion remains an unrivalled work that places English literature in its widest context: no other book offers such extensive exploration of the classical roots of English literature, and the European and non-European works and writers that have influenced its development.

Humphrey and Ailsa meet as children by a grey, northern sea. Humphrey is quiet, serious - and will in time explore the seas mysteries Ailsa is angry, a freckled cobra ready to strike. Yet they fascinate one another and when they meet again years later they fall briefly - and disastrously - in love.

On dit que ce n''est pas la destination qui compte, mais le voyage... Ailsa est dans l''avion, Humphrey dans le train. Ils doivent se retrouver au bout du chemin, a Finsterness, le petit village au bord de la mer du Nord ou ils se sont connus, enfants, dans l''immediat apres-guerre. Ils ne se sont pas revus depuis des decennies. La derniere fois que leurs routes se sont croisees, au debut des annees soixante, Ailsa, la feministe avide de publicite, la fantasque, l''outranciere, et Humphrey, le tranquille doctorant en biologie marine, se sont follement aimes... et dechires. Une rupture qui a imprime leurs vies futures. On dit qu''on n''oublie jamais son premier amour. Le hasard - si c''est bien lui - veut que les deux sexagenaires soient aujourd''hui invites par la meme universite pour se voir remettre un doctorat honoris causa. Alors qu''ils se rapprochent de ce Nord de legende ou tout a commence, les souvenirs et les interrogations affleurent. Qu''est-ce qui les attend, a la fin du voyage. Naviguant entre passe et present, entre fantaisie et &emotion, la piquante Margaret Drabble materialise le royaume de l''enfance, les sables mouvants de l''existence et la fuite du temps.