SETTING THE WORLD ON FIRE

by Angus Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 30, 1980

Like all of Wilson's fiction, this new novel is marbled with elegance, erudition, and striking scenes--but, as in As If By Magic (1973), the world here remains oddly remote, and the apparent themes never seem to emerge properly through the diffuse plottings. Wilson begins in 1948, with a quite beautiful, Woolf-like chapter that elaborately feels out the dichotomy between two small brothers--fearful Tom and imaginative Piers--as they pay their first visit to Tothill House, London's greatest manse (the work of architects Pratt and Vanbrugh) as well as the home of the boys' grandmother, Lady Mosson, and bachelor Uncle Hugh. (Father was killed in the War; Mother is a socially inferior rose-grower.) But as the story proper gets underway, with the boys at the Westminster School in mid-1950s London, their contrasting personalities are announced rather than developed: Tom, nicknamed ""Pratt"" because he prefers that architect's quiet, orderly style, likes to cook, is considered the ""solid"" brother, yet really just fades out as a character; Piers, nicknamed ""Van"" because he prefers Vanbrugh's daring panache, is obviously the one preparing to set the world on fire as he directs a superb student production of Richard II and plans to do great, innovative things (perhaps in Tothill House itself) with Lully's opera Phaethon. (As usual in novels, the creativity of play-direction isn't convincingly projected here.) Moreover, this strangely artificial, off-balance treatment of the brothers is undermined by the intense focus given to domestic flare-ups among the Mossons: Uncle Hugh (rumored to have sex secrets) breaks off his engagement to a noisy, chic, tactless Italian heiress, much to the satisfaction of possessive Lady M., a class-obsessed convert to Christian Science; and the boys' mother reveals her intention to live openly with her longtime married lover and is therefore drummed out of the family, with the boys loyally following. True, these fracases do provide some dandy Forsyte Saga-ish fireworks, but they mostly just distract from the already-fuzzy Piers/Tom relationship. And finally, ten years later, brave, solid Tom (now a lawyer/gourmet cook) dies when terrorists try to sabotage the long-delayed premiere of Phaethon at Tothill House (now owned by famous director Piers)--in an awkward, contrived finale that's hardly enhanced by the brothers' deathbed exchange of urgings to ""do your own thing."" If that's Wilson's message--that both sorts of personality are valuable, complementary--it doesn't come through with passion or conviction in this choppy, near-pastiche narrative. What does come through, however, is a gallery of diverting supporting characters, some rich daubs of fierce social comedy, and much specialized pleasure for devotees of 17th-century opera and architecture. Page-by-page charms, then, but little cumulative impact.

Pub Date: Oct. 30, 1980

ISBN: 1842324462

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION