Dark Places of the Heart
 First edition | |
| Author | Christina Stead |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Publisher | Holt, Rinehart and Winston |
Publication date | 1966 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 352pp |
| Preceded by | The People with the Dogs |
| Followed by | The Little Hotel |
Dark Places of the Heart (1966) is a novel by Australian writer Christina Stead. This novel is also known by Stead's preferred title Cotter's England.[1]
Story outline
[edit]Set in post-war northern England the novel follows the fortunes of Nellie Cook, sister Peggy Cotter and brother Tom, and their familial and external relationships.
Critical reception
[edit]Writing in The Canberra Times, Neville Braybrooke notes that the book is a "masterly depiction of working class life, both in the north and south of England, it has a freshness of vision which makes it unique."[2]
A reviewer in Kirkus Review was a little ambivalent about the book: "Like her best novel, it is a hurdy gurdy of domestic crises, strewn with slashing, colorful speech, vigorous rhythms and social detail. Yet it has a strangely melancholic air and an uncertain jumble of incidents, as if the author were never sure either of her descriptive powers or of the intended emotional design."[3]