40s fiction

[Wheelybug]

I need to pick a book written in the 40s for book club. Have done a bit of research and come up with a couple of ideas but just wondered if I was missing any classics.

COnsidering Nancy Mitford (but a bit too predictable ?) or Neville Shute at mo.

[KurriKurri]

1984
Brideshead Revisited

Daphne Du Maurier (not quite sure of dates, but I'm guessing she wrote something in the 40's)

Um - my minds gone blank, hopefully someone with some kind of memory will be along soon - I'll keep thinking.

Does it have to be British authors only, or any nationality?

[pollywollydoodle]

maltese falcon
a raymond chandler
diary of anne frank?

[badgermonkey]

I love these short stories by Mollie Panter-Downes. They're about life during the war, but from a domestic POV with details about how men going into the army changed relationships etc. I love the tone of them and the little things that really get you into the period.

www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Evening-Mrs-Craven-Panter-Donnes/dp/1906462011?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[KurriKurri]

Graham Greene - heart of the matter

Hesse - Glass Bead game, or Thomas Mann probably wrote something in the 40's

[pollywollydoodle]

and i've forgotten what it's called but the book about the women who set up a circle during ww2 to stimulate themselves by circulating letters/articles they had written..mainly arising out of their everyday lives and experiences...sort of a 1940's MN

[exexpat]

pollywolly - I think you are thinking of 'Can any mother help me?' by Jenna Bailey. It's a fascinating read - not fiction though, if that matters, and the letters started in the 1930s go on for decades, so not just 1940s.

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

That's Can Any Mother Help Me.

I was going to suggest Mrs Miniver but just checked and saw that the first newspaper columns appeared in the 1930s.

[Wheelybug]

Thanks for suggestions. I should also add it preferably needs to be something I Haven't read (but then you wouldn't know what i have read ).

I've read Brideshead, lots of Daphne DuM (and this month's - 50s - is a DuM), diary of Anne Frank (although did consider this) and Can Any MOther help me.

Will take a look at the others - SmallBunch - I am having the problem that anything I think of ends up being 30s or 50s. I guess not as much was written in teh 40s for obvious reasons.

[exexpat]

I was going to suggest something by Rose Macaulay, but just checked and she has a big gap in her list of novels between 1940 and 1950...

[pollywollydoodle]

asmallbunch...yes, that's the one

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

Eureka!

How about Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym which, according to wikipedia, was written in about 1940 although not published until much later? Or Some Tame Gazelle which was written in 1949?

[MrsDickens]

OP, your best bet might be to look at the Persephone website here which has masses of wonderful fiction from this period. 'Little Boy Lost' by Marghanita Laski would be my recommendation. Published in 1949 and is heartbreakingly well-written and touching.

(Hope this thread hasn't expired!)

[steamedtreaclesponge]

Yes, I would definitely second MrsDickens' recommendation and check out Persephone. They specialise in women writers from that period and have a really interesting selection.

The books are beautiful too!

[dotty2]

I heard a (tiny) snippet of a J. B. Priestley novel from the 1940s, Blackout in Gresley, on R4 Book at Bedtime this week. He's terribly unfashionable, I know, but it piqued my curiosity. Persephone books are lovely and a favourite present idea of mine - but quite pricey for everyone to buy compared to other stuff on Amazon/Book Depository - which may be a factor.

[Wheelybug]

thanks again !

Actually you read my mind MrsD - last night I suddenly remembered Persephone books and dug out my copy of Miss Pettigrew (the only one I have sadly) and was having a look through - will take a look at Little Boy Lost. I had been thinking of Saplings as I was an avid Noel Streatfield reader as a child.

Am guessing other copies might be found on amazon rather than having to get a persephone copy ?? I know a few people use library too. Will have to check that before selecting though.

[thegirlwiththemouseyhair]

Elizabeth Bowen.
Divine!
All set in London during the blitz.
Fab stuff.

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

Or for Virago fans there is Rosamund Lehmann's The Ballad and the Source (1944) or
The Gipsy's Baby & Other Stories (1946).

[elkiedee]

Here's a list from goodreads

www.goodreads.com/list/show/23.Best_Books_of_the_Decade_1940_s

I looked at wikipedia but that's mostly crime fiction (Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey and Raymond Chandler) and some children's books - Laura Ingalls Wilder, Antonia Forest.

For secondhand and library availability, I'd go for Virago not Persephone. 80s and 90s paperback reprints are much cheaper and easier to find than older versions.