Douglas, Norman

Douglas, Norman (George Norman Douglas), 1868–1952, British novelist and essayist, b. Scotland. He spent the years from 1894 to 1896 in diplomatic service in Russia but resigned from the foreign service in 1896. His masterpiece, South Wind (1917), which is set on Nepenthe, an invented Mediterranean island much like Capri, satirizes everything from colonial history to conventional morality. Other works include Old Calabria (1915), In the Beginning (1927), and Good-bye to Western Culture (1930). Written in a witty, conversational style, all Douglas's works reveal his erudition and his genuine appreciation of the Mediterranean area.

Bibliography

See biography by N. Cunard (1954); studies by R. M. Dawkins (1952) and R. D. Lindeman (1965).