 First edition | |
| Author | Martin Amis |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
Publication date | February 2010 |
| Pages | 370 pp (hardback first edition) |
| ISBN | 0-224-07612-4 |
The Pregnant Widow is a novel by the English writer Martin Amis, published by Jonathan Cape on 4 February 2010.[1] Its theme is the feminist revolution, which Amis sees as incomplete and bewildering for women, echoing the view of the 19th-century Russian writer, Alexander Herzen, that revolution is "a long night of chaos and desolation".[2] The "pregnant widow", a phrase taken from Herzen's From the other shore (1848–1850), is the point at which the old order has given way, the new one not yet born.[3] Amis said in 2007 that "consciousness is not revolutionised by the snap of a finger. And feminism, I reckon, is about halfway through its second trimester."[4]
The story is set in a castle owned by a cheese tycoon in Campania, Italy, where Keith Nearing, a 20-year-old English literature student; his girlfriend, Lily; and her friend, Scheherazade, are on holiday during the hot summer of 1970, the year that Amis says "something was changing in the world of men and women".[5][6] The narrator is Keith's superego, or conscience, in 2009.
The novel was a work-in-progress for the best part of seven years, his first since House of Meetings (2006). Originally set for release in late 2007, its publication was delayed to 2008, when he made what he describes as a "terrible decision" to abandon what he had written to that point, and begin again, building the story up from one section he retained, the part about Italy.[3] The long gestation period resulted in its expansion to some 370 pages, making it his longest novel since The Information in 1995.[7]
- ^ Martin Amis Launch Event 'The Pregnant Widow', booktrade.info, accessed 2 February 2010.
- ^ Herzen, Alexander. From the other shore: and The Russian people and socialism, an open letter to Jules Michelet. G. Braziller, 1956.
- ^ a b Bilmes, Alex. Martin Amis: 'Women have got too much power for their own good' , The Daily Telegraph, 2 February 2010.
- ^ Martin Amis. You ask the questions, The Independent, 15 January 2007.
- ^ Long, Camilla. Martin Amis and the sex war[dead link], The Times, 24 January 2010.
- ^ Kemp, Peter. The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis[dead link], The Sunday Times, 31 January 2010.
- ^ The Pregnant Widow, Amazon, accessed 21 November 2009.