Henry Green at the Limits of Modernism

Providing a theoretically sophisticated and historically nuanced reading of Henry Green’s novels, this work makes the case for his importance in reconsiderations of modernism, late modernism, and postwar realism. An ambitious reassessment of Green’s oeuvre to date, this book argues against the predominant view of Green’s fiction as an autonomous literary construction and connects Green to a number of social and literary contexts, resulting in fresh readings of his novels and also a greater accessibility to an author long considered elusive. With significant investigations of Green’s connection to his literary generation, his multifaceted and formally innovative handling of social class, his negotiations of narrative authority and authorship, and the importance of disability studies to understanding Green’s fiction, this study charts the complex trajectories of Green’s fiction against both social and literary contexts. The work also moves beyond the confines of British literature to explore Green’s connections to broader trends in European literature.