Imprint
- Virago
- Virago
Fiction, Classic fiction (pre c 1945), Romance
First published in 1968, this quietly ironic novel of a bohemian, eccentric artist and the damage he causes to his family, perfectly displays Taylor's gift for tragedy and wry comedy.
INTRODUCED BY CHARLOTTE MENDELSON
'It is time that justice was done to Elizabeth Taylor... All her writings could be described as coming into the category of comedy. Comedy is the best vehicle for truths that are too fierce to be borne' ANITA BROOKNER
'"You know,'"Midge began, and paused. She was rather taken aback, and could not at once think of anything to say. "Perhaps there's nothing so dangerous as having led a sheltered life."'
Cressy has grown up in a world of women, presided over by her eccentric, artist grandfather Harry Bretton. Rebelling against the wholesome, organic values of her home life, Cressy decides to leave home in search of more ephemeral pleasures. Taking a job in an antiques shop, she meets David, a self-satisfied journalist, also looking for means of fleeing the family nest. But as Cressy cannot fend for herself and David is securely tied to his mother's apron strings, this act of escape for both of them proves a powerful form of bondage.
'Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor's novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I've returned to her too - in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it ' SARAH WATERS
Praise for The Wedding Group
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Written in 1968, The Wedding Group demonstrates the English writer Elizabeth Taylor's considerable strengths as a novelist ... full of carefully written dialogue and delicate, telling detail - Guardian
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It is time that justice was done to Elizabeth Taylor... All her writings could be described as coming into the category of comedy. Comedy is the best vehicle for truths that are too fierce to be borne.
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She is the kind of writer you long to have had as a friend. How witty she would have been to talk to, with that sharpness that misses nothing, that wry acceptance of the way things are - Spectator
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Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor's novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I've returned to her too - in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it
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She's a magnificent and - for the idiotic reason that she's very middle-class - underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975) is increasingly recognised as one of the best British writers of the twentieth century. She wrote her first book, At Mrs Lippincote's, during the war while her husband was in the Royal Air Force, and this was followed by eleven further novels and a children's book, Mossy Trotter. Her acclaimed short stories appeared in publications including Vogue, the New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar.
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