ABSTRACT
David Storey is author of eight published novels, the first of which was This Sporting Life: it was actually the eighth novel he had written, but it was turned down by more than a dozen publishers over a four-year period before it was recognized as a masterpiece. Storey’s first play, The Restoration oj Arnold Middleton, similarly suffered nine years of neglect before it was produced on stage. But his work has not lacked enormous critical acclaim since those early years. Storey is committed to the tradition of the English social novel. He regrets what he calls the ‘new philistinism’ of many misbegotten contemporary novels, which skip ‘real life’ and offer only a commentary upon life. The themes of his novels are to a certain degree autobiographical, and it can readily be inferred that Storey feels obliged to pay his emotional dues to a background which he found hostile to his sensibility.
