Tide is Right - Softcover

Charteris, Hugo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0916583783 ISBN 13: 9780916583781

Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 1992

This remarkable novel, suppressed in 1957 and published by Dalkey Archive for the first time, is concerned with a day in the life of a stagnant, aristocratic Scottish family in the 1950s. As the family prepares for its annual Christmas dance, old rivalries and tensions flare as John Harling arrives to visit his sister Mary, who has married Duncan Mackean, next in line to inherit the estate left by Colin Mackean, dead two years now, but very much alive in the memory of the current family, presided over by Alan Mackean and his wife Augustine (Tin). By the end of this nerve-racking day, John tells his sister that this life, which you lead here, is incestuous and that her husband Duncan is in love with things he should have left -- long ago. Soil, place, family, the past -- roots...One must have courage to travel light today. That night, Duncan and Alan go out shooting; only one returns alive.

From Library Journal:

This satire on the British aristocracy, originally intended for publication in 1957, was suppressed by an aristocratic family because two of the main characters were modeled after its members. It portrays a day in the life of the Mackean family on and near their Scottish estate. Plot and characters as well as the objective "camera" style of writing put one in mind of Jean Renoir's film, The Rules of the Game. It is well written, but as a book intended for the 1950s reminiscent of British satire like Waugh's it will probably not have wide appeal. Notes on slang of the day would have made it more accessible. A necessary book, however, for larger modern British collections.
- Judy Mimken, Cardinal Strich Coll., Milwaukee
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

British novelist Charteris cheerfully strips away upper-class pretensions and delivers acid, Evelyn Waugh-esque witticisms in this study of an aristocratic Scottish clan.

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0916583783
• ISBN 13: 9780916583781
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 145