Denton Welch Ordine dei libri (cronologico)

At the age of twenty, the novelist Denton Welch suffered a cycling accident that left him partially paralyzed; the injuries that he sustained were to leave him in almost constant pain for the rest of his life, as well as bestowing upon him the spinal tuberculosis that would kill him at the age of 33. A Voice Through a Cloud--increasingly regarded as Welch's masterpiece--is his account of this accident and the period of convalescence soon after. The unsparing chronicle of the world of a hospital patient--riddled with anger, boredom, almost unbearable stabs of pain and sharp flashes of humour

The third volume in Enitharmon’s Denton Welch series is his autobiographical novella I Left My Grandfather’s House, written in 1943, first published posthumously in 1958 and only briefly in print since. In the novella Welch recounts a walking tour undertaken in southern England ten years before, while he was a painting student at the Goldsmiths’ School of Art. His many adventures along the way are described with a characteristic lyricism and energy, as well as with a sense of nostalgia not only for the pre-war world, but also for the innocent enjoyment of existence in the years before Welch was permanently disabled by a life-threatening accident. As Edmund White has written: ‘Welch has the power to generate interest out of even the most meagre materials. He had this gift from the beginning but suffering and illness refined it into a white-hot flame.’

Diario di un viaggio che assume come punto di partenza e di arrivo non tanto luoghi geografici - l'Inghilterra e la Cina degli anni trenta -, quanto momenti cruciali nella formazione di un adolescente, Viaggio inaugurale racconta, attraverso ricordi di inesorabili tenerezza e sottili turbamenti, il dispiegarsi di una delicata sensibilità. Al grande vuoto prodotto dalla morte della madre, il giovane Denton reagisce con una fuga dal collegio goffa e patetica, che si conclude con un inatteso ed entusiasmante viaggio di ricongiungimento al padre, in Cina. L'amore incantato per i piccoli oggetti d'arte, la passione per l'antiquariato, il commovente feticismo per ricettari e soprammobili, unici momenti di un nucleo famigliare disgregato, fanno da contrappunto alle rapidi avventure e alle perlustrazioni curiose del ragazzo, sullo sfondo di una Cina che sembra colta attraverso una lente tanto raffinata quanto snobisticamente britannica. Tra corse in risciò, tè delle cinque in grandi giardini all'inglese, viaggi in treno, conversazioni più o meno eleganti e incontri inconsueti, Welch mette a punto una ricerca interiore e, dalla sofferenza iniziale, giunge a consolidare un proprio mondo emotivo grazie alla consapevolezza che ad ogni perdita corrisponde, per sempre, un ricordo.

'Unlike any other person I had come across, Welch seemed to be speaking particularly to me' Alan Bennett 'Vivid ... surprising ... an exquisite balance of pain and beauty' Guardian Orvil Pym does not fit in. A waifish, eccentric, sensitive fifteen-year-old, he hates school and longs to be alone. Spending his Summer holidays in a genteel Surrey hotel with his mysterious father and two brothers who don't understand him, he explores ancient churches, spies on a man rowing in the river and collects antiques, escaping into his own singular aesthetic world. First published in 1945, this is an unforgettable portrayal of a young man's sensuous coming-of-age. 'A heightened, sensual journey ... it is Orvil's vibrant energy that allows this book to bubble ... beautifully odd ... spectacular' Independent