James Gordon Farrell

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For the American novelist, see James T. Farrell.

James Gordon Farrell (25 January 1935 — 11 August 1979), referred to by and large as J.G. Farrell, was a British novelist best known for his historical fiction. He is most famous for his Empire Trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip), three books dealing with the political and human consequences of British colonial rule. The Siege of Krishnapur won the 1973 Booker Prize.

Contents 1 Life 1.1 Childhood and education 1.1.1 Early Works 1.1.2 Empire Trilogy 1.1.3 Death 2 Works 3 About Farrell 4 Prizes 5 External links

[edit] Life

[edit] Childhood and education

Farrell was born in Liverpool and from the age of 12 attended Rossall public school in Lancashire. At about this time his parents moved to Dublin and from this point on Farrell spent much time in Ireland: this, perhaps combined with the popularity of Troubles, leads some to treat him as an Irish writer. In 1956 he went to study at Brasenose College, Oxford; it was while there he contracted polio.

[edit] Early Works

His first novel, A Man From Elsewhere, was published in 1963. It is set in France and shows the clear influence of French Existentialism. It entirely lacks the ironic humour and the tender appreciation of human frailty which characterise his later work. Farrell himself came to dislike the book.

Two years after this came The Lung in which Farrell returned to his real-life trauma of less than a decade earlier: the main character Martin Sands contracts polio and has to spend a long period in hospital. In 1967 he published A Girl in the Head set in the fictional English seaside town of Maidenhair Bay. Like its two predecessors the book met only middling critical and public reaction. Had Farrell's career ended at this point he would be remembered now as a minor figure at best. Yet his next book proved he was a writer of great talent and unique sensibility.

[edit] Empire Trilogy

Troubles is the comic yet melancholic tale of an English Major, Brendan Archer, who in 1919 goes to County Wicklow in Ireland to meet the woman he believes he is about to marry. From the viewpoint of the crumbling Majestic Hotel at Kilnalough he watches Ireland's fight for independence from Britain. At a political level both Farrell's next book The Siege of Krishnapur and his last completed work The Singapore Grip continue this narrative of the collapse of British colonial power. The three novels are connected only in a broad thematic sense although Archer does reappear briefly in The Singapore Grip.

A film version of Troubles was made for British television in 1988, scripted by Charles Sturridge and directed by Christopher Morahan[[1]].

[edit] Death

In 1979 Farrell decided to quit London to take up residence on the Sheep's Head peninsula in southwest Ireland. A few months later he drowned in Bantry Bay, apparently while angling. He is buried in the cemetery of St. James's Church of Ireland church [2] in Durrus.

His papers are held by the manuscript library at Trinity College, Dublin: Papers of James Gordon Farrell (1935-1979). TCD MSS 9128-60.

[edit] Works

• 1963 A Man From Elsewhere
• 1965 The Lung
• 1967 A Girl in the Head

Empire Trilogy:

• 1970 Troubles
• 1973 The Siege of Krishnapur
• 1978 The Singapore Grip

• 1973-74 The Pussycat Who Fell in Love with a Suitcase. Atlantis. 6 (Winter 1973/4), pp. 6-10
• 1981 The Hill Station, unfinished

[edit] About Farrell

• 1981 John Spurling, Margaret Drabble, Malcolm Dean: Personal Memories of J.G. Farrell; The Hill Station

• 1986 Ronald Binns, J.G. Farrell

• 1979 Bernard Bergonzi, The Contemporary English Novel

• 1997 Michael C. Prusse, "Tomorrow is Another Day": The Fictions of James Gordon Farrell

• 1997 Derek Mahon: The World of J.G. Farrell,(poem), October 1997

• 1999 Lavinia Greacen: J.G. Farrell - The Making of a Writer (full-length biography)

• 2000 Elisabeth Delattre: Histoire et fiction dans Troubles de J.G.Farrell ", Etudes Irlandaises, printemps 2000, n° 25-1, pp. 65-80

• 2002 Elisabeth Delattre: Du Monde romanesque au poème : 'The World of J.G.Farrell' de Derek Mahon ", Etudes Irlandaises, printemps 2002, n° 27-1, pp. 93-105

• 2003 Elisabeth Delattre: Intégrer, exclure ou la genèse d'une œuvre : Troubles de J.G.Farrell ", in Irlande : Inclusion, exclusion, publié sous la direction de Françoise Canon-Roger, Presses Universitaires de Reims, 2003, pp. 65-80.

[edit] Prizes

• 1971 Faber Memorial Prize (Troubles)
• 1973 Booker Prize (The Siege of Krishnapur)

[edit] External links

• Article in "The Literary Encyclopedia"