The Masters [Hardcover]

C. P. Snow (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0684147440 | ISBN-13: 978-0684147444 | Publication Date: September 1976

The fourth in the Strangers and Brothers series begins with the dying Master of a Cambridge college. His imminent demise causes intense rivalry and jealousy amongst the other fellows. Former friends become enemies as the election looms.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

C.P. Snow was born in Leicester, on 15 October 1905. He was educated from age 11 at Alderman Newton's School for boys where he excelled in most subjects, enjoying a reputation for an astounding memory. In 1923 he gained an external scholarship in science at London University, whilst working as a laboratory assistant at Newton's to gain the necessary practical experience, because Leicester University, as it was to become, had no chemistry or physics departments at that time. Having achieved a first class degree, followed by a Master of Science he won a studentship in 1928 which he used to research at the famous Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. Snow went on to become a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1930 where he also served as a tutor, but his position became increasingly titular as he branched into other areas of activity. In 1934, he began to publish scientific articles in Nature, and then The Spectator before becoming editor of the journal Discovery in 1937. However, he was also writing fiction during this period and in 1940 'Strangers and Brothers' was published. This was the first of eleven novels in the series and was later renamed 'George Passant' when 'Strangers and Brothers' was used to denote the series itself. Discovery became a casualty of the war, closing in 1940. However, by this time Snow was already involved with the Royal Society, who had organised a group to specifically use British scientific talent operating under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour. He served as the Ministry's technical director from 1940 to 1944. After the war, Snow became a civil service commissioner responsible for recruiting scientists to work for the government. He also returned to writing, continuing the Strangers and Brothers series of novels. 'The Light and the Dark' was published in 1947, followed by 'Time of Hope' in 1949, and perhaps the most famous and popular of them all, 'The Masters', in 1951. He planned to finish the cycle within five years, but the final novel 'Last Things' wasn't published until 1970. He married the novelist Pamela Hansford Johnson in 1950 and they had one son, Philip, in 1952. Snow was knighted in 1957 and became a life peer in 1964, taking the title Baron Snow of the City Leicester. He also joined Harold Wilson's first government as Parliamentary Secretary to the new Minister of Technology. When the department ceased to exist in 1966 he became a vociferous back-bencher in the House of Lords. After finishing the Strang --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co (September 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684147440
• ISBN-13: 978-0684147444
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,202,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully-realized portrait of a scholarly enclave, February 7, 2000

By 

S. Dougherty (Greeley, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Masters (Hardcover)

A novel set in the intimate, closed world of a school or college (or a convent, or cathedral close) has a better-than-average chance of being fascinating to begin with. Whether a school story is a work of literary art such as Snow's The Masters or Antonia White's Frost in May, a decent novel in the vein of Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days, Kipling's Stalky and Co., or Farrar's Eric, or even the kind of boarding-school story churned out by the likes of Angela Brazil and the author of the Greycliff series, school stories tend to hold one's interest because they are school stories. Generally written by one with insider knowledge, such books seem to reveal not only the characteristics of a society in microcosm, but also the particular stresses and strains imposed by intimate, closed worlds.

Snow's The Masters is perhaps the supreme example of this genre. A perfectly plotted and self-contained novel filled with unforgettable characters (Mrs. Jago, the embittered Despard-Smith and the beautifully-realized Professor M. H. L. Gay come to mind), The Masters is certainly C.P. Snow's best work. Snow's college world is no ivory tower. Passions and ruthless hatreds surface as two factions clash over the election of a new Master of a Cambridge college. The power brokers Chrystal and Brown display their practiced adroitness as they machinate to put their candidate in office and angle for a major benefaction from a wealthy industrialist. Political overtones from the outside world (the novel is set iduring the period of Hitler's rise to power) begin to agitate the election question further. This is a novel to read again and again.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Politics of the Personal, December 3, 1999

By 

Robert H. Nunnally Jr. "gurdonark" (Allen, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Masters (Hardcover)

The Masters concerns an election of the head of a college in England by the masters (professors) at the school. Snow skillfully illustrates to us the politics of small groups, and how very different those politics are from politics in a broader sense. This book is one of the Strangers and Brothers series, but it reads very nicely as a stand-alone work. The Masters is a good read, in which we follow the partisan manuvering of two factions seeking different candidates in the school election. Snow's style is straightforward, almost a latter-day Trollope, and his ideas are very insightful. This is a classic, which deserves to be more read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genuine classic, November 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Masters (Hardcover)

I'd urge you to read this one. Few people describe the inner life of men, or at least his class of 20th century Englishman, so well as Snow. The characterisations are the strength, all vanities and motivations probed as if by a surgeon, though the "closed" politics plot is entertaining enough. Other reviewers list their favourite characters, I'd plump for Winslow and Brown myself. Beautiful writing style.