Ronald Harwood's Tragic Vision

“As a survey of Ronald Harwood’s oeuvre, this book faces little to no competition. It clearly fills a gap in the market. Ann Hall’s book ambitiously attempts a selective synopsis of the plots of seven novels, sixteen plays, and eight screenplays.”—Peter Lawson, author, Anglo-Jewish Poetry from Isaac Rosenberg to Elaine Feinstein

“Ann Hall capably knits together the various strands of Harwood’s oeuvre with a compelling focus on what she defines as his ‘tragic vision,’ identified primarily in his construction of flawed or complex lead characters, often outsiders to their own social environments, who are nobly facing adverse or compromising conditions, or addressing their own inner conflicts. Though the emphasis is on the tragic, a rich undercurrent of humor is celebrated as a key component of the author’s voice. What emerges from this highly readable study is a very clear set of patterns in Harwood’s writing including nuanced autobiographical impulses, the thrall of totalitarian regimes, the horror of the Holocaust, the dignity of Jewish community, and the iniquitous persistence of antisemitic sentiment, and, perhaps most importantly, the role of art as an enduring civilizing force, as a force of resistance in an exigent world.”—Mark Taylor-Batty, University of Leeds

“Relying upon interviews with Harwood as well as detailed readings of his works, Ann Hall highlights the multi-faceted nature of his cultural imprint, which includes his membership in the ‘unfashionable’ theatre set, his crafting of tragic figures across all three genres, his political writing as a Jew and a South African condemning oppression, especially Nazism and apartheid, and his exclusive focus on adaptation in his film scripts.”—William C. Boles, author, Mike Bartlett