Atonement (novel)

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Title Atonement

Atonement cover
Author Ian McEwan
Country England
Language English
Publisher Jonathan Cape
Released 2001
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 371 pp
ISBN ISBN 0224062522 (first edition)

Atonement (2001) is a novel by British writer Ian McEwan. It is widely regarded as one of McEwan's best works and was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction, an award that he had already won for his previous novel, Amsterdam. In addition, Time Magazine named it the best fiction novel of the year and included it in All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels.

McEwan utilizes several important stylistic techniques in the novel, including metafiction and psychological realism.

Atonement contains intertextual references to a number of other literary works including Henry James' The Golden Bowl, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey and Shakespeare's The Tempest.

In late 2006, Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy, when it was alleged that the novelist Ian McEwan plagiarized from this work while writing his highly-acclaimed novel, Atonement. McEwan has professed his innocence.[1][2][3]

A film adaptation, to be directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton, is currently in production for Working Title Films.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Atonement is a complex novel told from several points of view and divided in to four parts.

[edit] Part one

The story opens on a hot summer day in 1935. Briony Tallis has written a play for her brother Leon, with the characters to be played by her cousins, 15 year-old Lola and 9 year-old twins Jackson and Pierrot.

Briony's sister, Cecilia Tallis, has returned home from college and has confused feelings towards Robbie Turner, a poor family friend who has also been at college. While trying to help her water some flowers, they break a vase and pieces fall into the fountain. Cecilia strips to her underwear and jumps into the fountain to retrieve the fragments in front of a startled Robbie. Briony Tallis also witnesses this event from an upstairs bedroom.

Their brother Leon arrives with his friend Paul Marshall, an aspiring businessman who plans to sell chocolate bars to the Army. They drink cocktails.

Robbie returns home to write a letter to Cecilia. In one version of the letter he includes some lewd suggestions. He then inadvertently delivers this version of the letter to Cecilia via Briony, who also reads the lewd remarks. She is convinced that he is a "maniac". Cecilia realizes her love for Robbie and seduces him in the library, where they proceed to have sex. Briony interrupts their lovemaking.

After dinner, the twin cousins run away, leaving a letter. While the others are searching, Briony is hunting for Robbie, hoping to get him in trouble somehow. In the dark, she comes across Lola being raped by an unknown attacker. Briony convinces herself that the rapist is Robbie. The police arrive to investigate. When Robbie arrives with the rescued twins, he is arrested. Briony testifies to his crime, although she is confused.

[edit] Part two

We follow Robbie Turner in France during the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940. Robbie had spent some years in prison before being allowed to enlist in the army. He has been in contact with Cecilia through letters, and she has promised: "I'll wait for you. Come back." At the end of part two, Robbie is still in Dunkirk, his fate unknown.

[edit] Part three

Briony is now working as a trainee nurse in London during the weeks leading up to and following the Dunkirk evacuation. She now believes it was Paul Marshall who raped Lola in 1935, and feels guilty for accusing Robbie. Briony goes to the wedding of Lola and Paul Marshall, but lacks the courage to speak out against the marriage. She then tracks down her Cecilia and promises that she will try to atone for what she has done. Robbie is with Cecilia, and together they outline the legal procedures Briony will need to follow in order to exonerate Robbie.

[edit] Part four

The fourth section, titled "London 1999," is written from the perspective of Briony, now a successful novelist in her 70s. She is dying from vascular dementia. It is revealed that she is the author of the preceding sections of the novel, which are to be published only after the death of Lola and Paul Marshall. Although they are reunited in the novel, Cecilia and Robbie were never actually reunited - Robbie died of septicemia and Cecilia was killed in The Blitz.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Objects/Places of Significance

The Trials of Arabella
The Tallis Estate: located in the Surrey Hills in English, the Tallis Estate is the site of the Tallis family party for the birthday of Briony when she turns 77.
The Vase
Dunkirk
The Hospital

[edit] Quotes

"It appeared that her life was going to be lived in one room without a door!"

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ An inspiration, yes. Did I copy from another author? No. Guardian Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
  2. ^ McEwan hits back at call for atonement. Times Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
  3. ^ McEwan accused of copying writers memoirs. PR inside. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.

[edit] External links

[edit] Literary Criticism

  • Finney, Brian (2004) "Briony's Stand Against Oblivion: The Making of Fiction in Ian McEwan's Atonement." Journal of Modern Literature 27(3), p68-82.
  • Harold, James (2005) "Narrative Engagement with Atonement and The Blind Assassin." Philosophy and Literature 29(1), p130-145.
  • Schemberg, Claudia (2004) "Achieving 'At-one-ment': Storytelling and the Concept of Self in Ian McEwan's The Child in Time, Black Dogs, Enduring

Love and Atonement" Frankfurtam Main: Peter Lang.

v • d • e
Works by Ian McEwan

Novels: The Cement Garden (1978) • The Comfort of Strangers (1981) • The Child in Time (1987) • The Innocent (1989) • Black Dogs (1992) • Enduring Love (1997) • Amsterdam (1998) • Atonement (2001) • Saturday (2005) • On Chesil Beach (2007)
Short Stories: First Love, Last Rites (1975) • In Between the Sheets (1978)
Childrens' novels: Rose Blanche (1985) • The Daydreamer (1994)
Plays and Screenplays: The Imitation Game (1981) • The Ploughman's Lunch (1985) • Sour Sweet (1989) • The Good Son (1993)

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