''The Garrick Year'' is the second novel by British novelist

Margaret Drabble Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and '' Je ...

, first published in 1964. It is a first-person account of Emma, a London wife and mother examining the fraught bits of her marriage and an affair.

Development

Drabble wrote the novel while living in

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

, the birthplace of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, thus ''The Garrick Year'' focuses significantly on a satirical treatment of the theatre and actors.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' deemed the novel better than Drabble's

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

, ''

A Summer Bird-Cage ''A Summer Bird-Cage'' is the 1963 debut novel by Margaret Drabble published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The title of the novel is taken from a quotation from the play '' The White Devil'' by John Webster: ‘"Tis just like a summer bird-cage ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrick Year 1964 British novels Theatre-fiction Novels by Margaret Drabble Novels set in Herefordshire Weidenfeld & Nicolson books