Brigid Brophy
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Standard Name: Brophy, Brigid
Birth Name: Brigid Antonia Susan Brophy
Married Name: Brigid Antonia Susan Levey
Titled: Brigid Antonia Susan, Lady Levey
In the novel BB
's topics are social and sexual comedy. In non-fiction (essays, criticism, polemic) she pursued her interests in causes (often for the benefit of animals or writers), in opera and other arts, in deviant or nonconformist behaviour, and in individuals with a particular appeal to her. Late in her career, which spanned the second half of the twentieth century, came moving and clear-sighted writing on her multiple sclerosis. BB
disliked and opposed the study of women's writing in isolation from that of men.
Connections
Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
---|---|---|
Anthologization | Kathleen Nott | KN
contributed to several joint volumes in philosophy: an essay entitled Is Rationalism Sterile? to a volume edited by H. J. Blackham
in 1963, entitled Objections to Humanism, and essays to two collections edited by... |
Dedications | Lettice Cooper | Lettice Cooper
dedicated her novel Snow and Roses to her fellow-campaigners for public lending right, Brigid Brophy
and Maureen Duffy
. British Library Catalogue. |
Family and Intimate relationships | Maureen Duffy | MD
was living with a female partner when in summer 1967 her fellow-novelist Brigid Brophy
fell in love with her. A former lover, Iris Murdoch
, magnanimously hoped that this relationship would prove something stable... |
Friends, Associates | George Bernard Shaw | He was an important figure in the lives and careers of almost innumerable women writers: a good friend of Annie Besant
, Sylvia Pankhurst
, Elizabeth Robins
, and Christopher St John
, a romantic... |
Friends, Associates | Patricia Highsmith | Although she liked her solitude, PH
built a wide and robust network of friendships, largely conducted by letter. She developed slowly—not on first meeting her, but later—a friendship with her fellow-novelist Brigid Brophy
. Wilson, Andrew Norman. Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith. Bloomsbury, 2003. 265-6 |
Friends, Associates | Shena Mackay | She was a close friend of Brigid Brophy
from the early 1980s until Brophy's death in 1995. Brophy's brave account of her battle with multiple sclerosis pays generous tribute to SM
's loving support. Brophy, Brigid. Baroque-’n’-Roll. Hamish Hamilton, 1987. 14ff |
Friends, Associates | Iris Murdoch | She met Brigid Brophy
(another friend who was years tempestuously a lover) in 1954. This relationship survived several crises, when Brophy took offence at Murdoch's actions or expressed dislike for her writing. IM
met Elizabeth Bowen |
Intertextuality and Influence | Germaine Greer | In Bed with the English, which takes the form of a letter, declares its literary allegiances to be Anglo-American. It hopes to provide a straight-talking [Mary] McCarthy
-[Brigid] Brophy
rundown on the English... |
Intertextuality and Influence | Dorothy Bussy | Apart from her familial and social connections, it is for Olivia that DB
is most frequently noted in literary criticism and biography. In Distance and Desire: English Boarding-School Friendships (1984), Martha Vicinus
observes that Olivia... |
Literary responses | Dodie Smith | Most reviewers, however, found this book childish. Grove, Valerie. Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith. Chatto and Windus, 1996. 272 |
Literary responses | Elizabeth Taylor | Brigid Brophy
wrote that she valued very highly indeed the considered and considerable despair at the heart of this novel. Leclercq, Florence. Elizabeth Taylor. Twayne, 1985. 85 |
Literary responses | Patricia Highsmith | Novelist Brigid Brophy
, who also likened PH
to Dostoevsky
, Dirda, Michael. “This Woman Is Dangerous”. The Guardian, p. between pp. 12 and 13. between 12 and 13 |
Literary responses | Elizabeth Taylor | This volume drew an enthusiastic response from Brigid Brophy
, writing in the New Statesman, who declared herself ET
's dedicated fan. Brophy, Brigid. Don’t Never Forget. Cape, 1966. 164 |
Literary responses | Patricia Highsmith | She has been better appreciated in Britain than her native USA, and perhaps better in Europe than in Britain. Frank Richards
wrote that she made a life's work of her ostracisation from the American... |
Literary responses | Shena Mackay | Brigid Brophy
wrote appreciative reviews of some of SM
's early books. Hamilton, Ian. “Bohemian Rhapsodist”. The Guardian, pp. Saturday Review 6 - 7. 6 |
Timeline
August 1945
Canadian poet, novelist, and critic Elizabeth Smart
published her first novel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept (written four years previously during her first pregnancy).
1965
Giles Gordon
did a series of interviews for The Scotsman with female authors: a species of writer that at the time wasn't particularly recognised, although it certainly had been in the previous century.
By early November 1973
Experimental novelist B. S. Johnson
prefaced his short-story volume Aren't You Rather Young To Be Writing Your Memoirs? with a polemical critique listing only sixteen serious contemporary British writers.
23 April 1975
A major demonstration was held in Belgrave Square, London, in support of Public Lending Right.
Fraser, Antonia. Must You Go?. Random House of Canada, 2010.
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