The writings of Lucy lane Clifford (who also wrote as Mrs W K Clifford) were for almost a century completely lost to obscurity, but during her lifetime this extraordinary woman was a friend and confidant of Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy and other luminaries of the day. This collection contains possibly her best works. Her writings, originally penned as cautionary didactic tales for Victorian children, present themselves as a cycle of unique fables of existential dread and alienation, worthy (at their best) of a Kafka or Borges. Ranging from paeans to autism (‘Wooden Tony’ or ‘The Paper Fish’) or surreal horror (‘The New Mother’) this collection asks for Mrs Clifford to be reappraised as a precursor to 20th century and 21st century literature. This collection has been augmented with collages by artist D M Mitchell to show the link to such allegorical artists as Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst and Toyen.
Author
aka Mrs. Clifford, Mrs. W.K. Clifford Lucy Clifford (née Lane), better known as Mrs. W.K. Clifford, was a British novelist and journalist. She married the mathematician and philosopher William Kingdon Clifford in 1875. After his death in 1879, she earned a prominent place in English literary life as a novelist, and later as a dramatist. She is perhaps most often remembered as the author of The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise (1882), a collection of stories written for her children. Clifford wrote cinematic adaptations of her short stories and plays. Amongst her other works are Aunt Anne (1892), A Flash of Summer: The Story of a Simple Woman's Life (1895), The Likeness of Night (1901) and A Woman Alone (1914). (less)
