Larkin, Philip

New York. 1964. St Martin's Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 247 pages. hardcover. keywords: Literature England. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Set in wartime Oxford, this novel is a deeply perceptive study of a sensitive, intellectually eager youth seeking defense against the fear of social inadequacy, striving to attain a viable pattern of existence amid the bewildering mores of companions in less straitened circumstances. John Kemp, a diffident boy of provincial background, comes to the university as a freshman in the fall of 1940. The colleges are overcrowded, Rationing and austerity are eliminating the privacy, the privilege and the luxury of the past. Already a thoughtless, slovenly attitude pervades the new undergraduate body. John has to share rooms with Christopher, lazy, selfish and self-assured, The behavior of Christopher and his friends baffles John, so that he is driven to find some means of communicating with them on a common level. Tired of being taken for granted, he invents a girl named Jill, hoping to arouse Christopher's curiosity. He writes Jill letters and his lonely mind invests her with reality. One day a startled John comes face to face with the girl of fantasy whom he has grown to love. John's shy and desperate pursuit, with its moment of harsh truth, its inevitable and moving climax, is a voyage of anguish and self-discovery that leads him to vital issues: Was his love fulfilled or unfulfilled? What was its meaning in terms of his own life and the road and choices ahead? JILL, Mr. Larkin's first novel, is clearly marked by the elegance of style and sure craftsmanship that caused critics both in England and the U.S.A. to acclaim A GIRL IN WINTER as the work of an important talent. Published now for the first time in the United States, this revised edition has a special introduction by the author who gives a vivid picture of Oxford as he knew it during World War II. Mr. Larkin also discusses some of his college contemporaries, several of whom, including John Wain and Kingsley Amis, have earned literary renown. inventory #34394