Firbank, Ronald

Firbank, Ronald

▪ British author
born January 17, 1886, London, England
died May 21, 1926, Rome, Italy

      English novelist who was a literary innovator of some importance. Greatly indebted to the literature of the 1890s, his is a peculiarly fantastic and perverse, idiosyncratic humour. His wit largely depends upon the shape and cadence of the sentence and upon an eccentric and personal vocabulary. He influenced later novelists Evelyn Waugh and Ivy Compton-Burnett.

      A delicate child, Firbank was educated mainly privately, but he spent some two years at the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, he largely traveled for the sake of his health. He was painfully shy and had a habit of writhing his body and grasping his head. Firbank's eccentricities, drinking, and witty remarks soon made him a well-known, even legendary, figure in London intellectual and bohemian life.

      Firbank's most notable novels are Vainglory (1915), Inclinations (1916), Caprice (1917), Valmouth (1919), The Flower Beneath the Foot (1923), Sorrow in Sunlight (1924), and Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli (1926).

Additional Reading
James D. Merritt, Ronald Firbank (1969), offers a concise survey of his life and work. Miriam J. Benkovitz, Ronald Firbank (1969), is a good biography based on primary sources. Shorter studies are collected in Mervyn Horder (ed.), Ronald Firbank: Memoirs and Critiques (1977).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ronald Firbank — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Ronald Firbank Nombre Ronald Firbank Nacimiento 17 de enero de 1886 …   Wikipedia Español

  • Ronald Firbank — (né le 17 janvier 1886 à Londres, Royaume Uni décédé le 21 mai 1926 à Rome, Italie) est un écrivain britannique. Biographie Issu de la haute société britannique, Firbank quitta Oxford sans diplôme. Il vit de la fortune familiale, voyage beaucoup… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Firbank — [fʉr′baŋk] (Arthur Annesley) Ronald 1886 1926; Eng. novelist * * * …   Universalium

  • Firbank —   [ fəːbæȖk], Arthur Annesley Ronald, englischer Schriftsteller, * London 4. 3. 1886, ✝ Rom 21. 5. 1926; schrieb märchenhaft fantastische, Freude am Absurden zeigende Romane, die eine Abwendung vom Realismus des 19. Jahrhunderts darstellten und u …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Firbank — [fʉr′baŋk] (Arthur Annesley) Ronald 1886 1926; Eng. novelist …   English World dictionary

  • Ronald Firbank — Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 21 May 1926) was a British novelist. BiographyRonald Firbank was born in London, the son of society lady Harriet Jane Garrett and MP Sir Thomas Firbank. He went to Uppingham School, and then on to… …   Wikipedia

  • Firbank — biographical name (Arthur Annesley) Ronald 1886 1926 English author • Firbankian adjective …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Firbank — /ˈfɜbæŋk/ (say ferbangk) noun (Arthur Annesley) Ronald, 1886–1926, English author …  

  • novel — novel1 novellike, adj. /nov euhl/, n. 1. a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes. 2. (formerly) novella (def. 1). [1560 70; …   Universalium

  • The Swimming Pool Library — infobox Book | name = The Swimming Pool Library title orig = translator = image caption = author = Alan Hollinghurst illustrator = cover artist = country = language = English series = genre = publisher = Random House pub date = 12 August 1988… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”