ABSTRACT
J.B. Priestley’s 1929 novel The Good Companions created a whole new public profile for the writer: it became a bestseller not long after publication and found its way into the nation’s affections on a level neither Priestley nor his publishers could ever have predicted. As Priestley noted:
This idea of a picaresque long novel aroused about as much enthusiasm as a stuffed walrus at an exhibition of watercolours. The long novel was out of fashion, expensive to print, hard to sell. The picaresque was out too, except perhaps as an excuse for fancy dress.
