Morality Play (Norton Paperback Fiction) - Softcover

Unsworth, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393315606 ISBN 13: 9780393315608

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1996

Synopsis

Barry Unsworth, author of the Booker Prize-winnings "Sacred Hunger," turns to 14th-century England with a novel of foul doings in the time of "The Name of the Rose."In "Morality Play," Barry Unsworth, indisputably the finest writer of literate historical fiction alive today, brings 14th-century England to vibrant life, transporting us back to this "distant mirror" to show us a world that, beneath its medieval trappings, is full of the same corruption and moral dilemmas that we face today. Nicholas Barber is a 23-year-old monk who, fearing the wrath of his bishop for breaking his vows of chastity, takes up with a troupe of traveling players. Coming to a small town in the middle of winter, the troupe puts on its usual morality play, only to get caught up in a drama of a different kind. A murder has taken place and a mute-and-deaf girl stands condenmed, awaiting execution. Seeing an opportunity to attract a large audience, the players go through the town collecting information, which they weave into their second performance. As they perform, though, the story grows, as does the audience. Soon they learn that what makes for good drama is far closer to the dangerous truth than they originally imagined and they attract the concerned attention of the local potentate, the powerful Lord de Guise, who summons them to his castle for a "private performance." "Morality Play" is a brilliant novel that holds us in its powerful grip as it deftly portrays how art can, quite literally, reveal truth.

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....

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0393315606
• ISBN 13: 9780393315608
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224