Fox in the Attic

by Richard Hughes

Published December 1961
A tale of enormous suspense and growing horror, The Fox in the Attic is the widely acclaimed first part of Richard Hughes's monumental historical fiction, "The Human Predicament." Set in the early 1920s, the book centers on Augustine, a young man from an aristocratic Welsh family who has come of age in the aftermath of World War I. Unjustly suspected of having had a hand in the murder of a young girl, Augustine takes refuge in the remote castle of Bavarian relatives. There his hopeless love for his devout cousin Mitzi blinds him to the hate that will lead to the rise of German fascism. The book reaches a climax with a brilliant description of the Munich putsch and a disturbingly intimate portrait of Adolph Hitler.

The Fox in the Attic, like its no less remarkable sequel The Wooden Shepherdess, offers a richly detailed, Tolstoyan overview of the modern world in upheaval. At once a novel of ideas and an exploration of the dark spaces of the heart, it is a book in which the past returns in all its original uncertainty and strangeness.

In Hazard

by Richard Hughes

Published December 1952
A sea-story of vivid adventures, "In Hazard" is set on board the British ship Archimedes which is bound for the Far East from Norfolk (Virginia) via the Panama Canal. When the crew suddenly find themselves in the middle of a violent hurricane the book becomes an absorbing study of how different men behave when faced with danger.

The Wooden Shepherdess

by Richard Hughes

Published 5 April 1973
This historical novel follows the fortunes of Augustine through the inter-war years and also charts Hitler's rise to power as he recovers from the 1923 Munich putsch.