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The Vet's Daughter: A Virago Modern Classic
Barbara Comyns
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'A small Gothic masterpiece . . . I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities' SARAH WATERS
'A wonderful and original novel' ALAN HOLLINGHURST
'The strange off-beat talent of Barbara Comyns [whose] innocent eye observes with child-like simplicity the most fantastic or the most ominous occurrence' GRAHAM GREENE
'Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one else' MAGGIE O'FARRELL
I comforted myself with the knowledge that at least I wasn't earthbound like most people.
In a house full of screeching animals in Edwardian South London, Alice lives in the shadow of her domineering father. Longing to escape, she retreats ever deeper into a world of memories, fantasies and rapturous longings - until she discovers an extraordinary secret power of her own. But the strange events that unfold lead her, dressed in bridal white, to a scene of ecstatic triumph and disaster among the crowds on Clapham Common.
Blackly funny and indelibly haunting, The Vet's Daughter combines shocking realism with a visionary edge.
INTRODUCED BY JANE GARDAM
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Praise for The Vet's Daughter: A Virago Modern Classic
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Quite simply, Comyns writes like no one elseHas the vividness and innocence and the revelatory intensity of the narration of Pip or young David Copperfield. It projects its fantastic story with a tangible realness and manages to make public and inevitable a realm of private sensation close to nighmareI have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities - its darkness, its strangeness, its humour, its sadness, its startling images and twists of phraseTragic, comic and completely bonkers all in one, I'd go as far as to call her something of a neglected genius - GuardianComyns's own witchy way of looking at the world arises from her resourceful craft - her wordsmithery - which like a spell or a charm gives her fiction a unique flavourEveryone should read Barbara Comyns... There is no one to beat her when it comes to the uncanny - GuardianThe sense of fairytale is never far away in Barbara Comyns. Its childhood power never quite left her - SpectatorOne of the most distinctive voices in English literature - and ripe for rediscovery - Telegraph
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