John Wain (redirected from Wain, John (Barrington))

Wain, John 

Born Mar. 14, 1925, in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. English writer.

After graduating from Oxford University, Wain was a lecturer in English literature at the University of Reading from 1947 to 1955. Wain’s novel Hurry on Down (1953; Russian translation, 1960) placed him in the ranks of the “angry young men.” In the novels The Contenders (1958) and Strike the Father Dead (1962), Wain departed from a grotesque and satirical presentation of reality to a realistic portrayal of characters and mores. Wain’s social views are contradictory and superficial, as seen in the novel The Young Visitors (1965). In his later novels, such as The Smaller Sky (1967) and A Winter in the Hills (1970; Russian translation, 1972), however, he reveals an increasing objectivity. Wain is the author of collections of poetry, the historical poem Feng (1975), and the book of literary criticism The Living World of Shakespeare (1964).

WORKS

Living in the Present. New York, 1960.
Sprightly Running. London, 1962.
Essays on Literature and Ideas. London, 1963.
Death of the Hind Legs and Other Stories. New York-London, 1966.
The Life Guard and Other Stories. London, 1971.

REFERENCE

Ivasheva, V. V. Angliiskie dialogi. Moscow, 1971.