Morality Play - Hardcover

Unsworth, Barry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241133416 ISBN 13: 9780241133415

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1995

Synopsis

A novel about a group of travelling players touring England in 1390 in the years following the Black Death. Tired of presenting the usual mystery plays they decide to re-enact a murder that has recently taken place in the town they are visiting. This has unforeseen consequences as they are forced to confront the real story of death.

About this title

Review

A historical novelist of rare talent. . . . A spare and disquieting tale that, like a morality play itself, urges us to question the allure of Murder One, Prime Suspect 3, and our most recent trial of the century. --Linda Simon"

In Morality Play, [Unsworth] has created an entertaining, thought-provoking work of remarkable scope and detail. --Rick Quackenbush"

Morality Play is a bravura performance. . . . The novel is a thought-provoking comedy on the eternal sameness of disaster and the recurrent uses we put it to in art. On the way we toy with morality and also play our way to the truth. --Janet Burroway

Morality Play is a book of subtlety, compassion, and skill, and it confirms Barry Unsworth's position as a master craftsman of contemporary British fiction. --Charles Nicholl

The entire novel is brilliantly imagined. . . . It is a dramatic meditation on the relationship between life and play.--Brian Finney

A gem. . . . Morality Play resonates with meaning for our own time.--Dan Cryer

A perfect novel. . . . This book dazzles on every level. Its lyrically surprising, unforgettably credible, darkly challenging. You succumb happily on page one and stay in thrall right up to the quick, bruising end.--Julie Myerson

Morality Play is a bravura performance. . . . The novel is a thought-provoking comedy on the eternal sameness of disaster and the recurrent uses we put it to in art. On the way we toy with morality and also play our way to the truth. --Janet Burroway

Morality Play is a book of subtlety, compassion, and skill, and it confirms Barry Unsworth's position as a master craftsman of contemporary British fiction. --Charles Nicholl

Book Description

Nicholas Barber, a young and wayward cleric, stumbles across a group of travelling players and compounds his sins by joining them....

Edition details

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241133416
• ISBN 13: 9780241133415
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192