Against the backdrop of an English country hotel in a languid pre-war summer, Denton Welch's alter ego, Orvil Pym, examines his early life and formative experiences with a Proustian intensity. An adolescent voyeur, Orvil takes pleasure in the microscopic observation of his relatives and fellow guests, charting their eccentricities and love affairs as faithfully as he exposes his own obsessions. In a highly perceptive Afterword, Jeremy Reed relates the novel to Welch's life and work, praising it for writing that 'oscillates between moments of lyrical serenity and outbreaks of psychological disorder.' Flagrantly controversial on its first publication in 1945, In Youth Is Pleasure will impress new readers with its arresting visual descriptions and its defiance of convention.
- ISBN10 1904634176
- ISBN13 9781904634171
- Publish Date 16 December 2005 (first published December 1982)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 November 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Enitharmon Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 264
- Language English