Fraser, Ronald

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

(1888-1974) UK soldier, civil servant and author, in active service during World War One until an injury left him permanently disabled. Most of his work, like his first novel, The Flying Draper (1924; rev 1931), utilizes fantasy or sf devices – in this initial case levitation (see Telekinesis) – to create allegorical or philosophical arguments, unmistakably influenced by H G Wells: the draper in this first novel, for instance, finds that the ability to fly enforces almost literally "higher" thoughts. In the concocted China of Landscape with Figures (1925; rev 1952) [for Chinoiserie, Land of Fable and Oriental Fantasy see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], visitors to the East gain unworldly wisdom, an opening of the gates to Transcendence which also occurs in similar venues in Bell from a Distant Temple (1954) and The Wine of Illusion (1957).

In Flower Phantoms (1926) an orchid responds to the protagonist's hitherto frustrated nubility by showing her the secrets of Sex. The Chymical Wedding that shapes Marriage in Heaven (1932) climaxes in the Andes; and Tropical Waters (1933) features a Fantastic Voyage through South America, a continent to which Fraser returned more than once. The bulk of his work, through its reiterated use of patterns of travel culminating in a literal experience of transformation, can be understood as a softened form of Fantastika; examples include Surprising Results (1935), Bird Under Glass (1938), Circular Tour (1946), Maia (1948) and A Work of Imagination: (The Pen – the Brush – the Well) (1974).

Of more direct sf interest is Beetle's Career (1951), in which a super-Weapon is shown to have beneficial side-effects. The Venus quartet – A Visit from Venus (1958), Jupiter in the Chair (1958), Trout's Testament (1960) and City of the Sun (1961) – convenes various inhabitants of the Solar System to discus symposium-like a number of mildly pressing topics. In an elegant, generally painless manner, Fraser concentrated throughout his career on novels of controlled wit, mild Satire, admissible sentiment and serene Transcendence; only occasionally would these entertainments move into darker regions. Fraser was knighted in 1949 for his work as a diplomat. [JC]

see also: Psychology.

Sir Arthur Ronald Fraser

born London: 3 November 1888

died Chinnor, Oxfordshire: 12 September 1974

works

series

Venus

A Visit from Venus (London: Jonathan Cape, 1958) [Venus: hb/Hans Tisdall]
Jupiter in the Chair (London: Jonathan Cape, 1958) [Venus: hb/Hans Tisdall]
Trout's Testament (London: Jonathan Cape, 1960) [Venus: hb/Hans Tisdall]
City of the Sun (London: Jonathan Cape, 1961) [Venus: hb/Pat Marriott]

individual titles (selected)

The Flying Draper (London: T Fisher Unwin, 1924) [in the publisher's First Novel Library series: hb/uncredited]
- The Flying Draper (London: Jonathan Cape, 1931) [rev of the above: hb/]
Landscape with Figures (London: T Fisher Unwin, 1925) [hb/E Lucchesi]
- Landscape with Figures (London: Jonathan Cape, 1952) [rev of the above: hb/]
Flower Phantoms (London: Jonathan Cape, 1926) [hb/]
Miss Lucifer (London: Jonathan Cape, 1931) [hb/]
Marriage in Heaven (London: Jonathan Cape, 1932) [hb/]
Tropical Waters (London: Jonathan Cape, 1933) [hb/]
Surprising Results (London: Jonathan Cape, 1935) [hb/]
Bird Under Glass (London: Jonathan Cape, 1938) [hb/Ernst Aufseeser]
The Fiery Gate (London: Jonathan Cape, 1943) [hb/]
Circular Tour (London: Jonathan Cape, 1946) [hb/uncredited]
Maia (London: Jonathan Cape, 1948) [hb/uncredited]
Sun in Scorpio (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949) [hb/Mowat]
Beetle's Career (London: Jonathan Cape, 1951) [hb/nonpictorial]
Glimpses of the Sun (London: Jonathan Cape, 1952) [hb/uncredited]
Bell from a Distant Temple (London: Jonathan Cape, 1954) [hb/uncredited]
Lord of the East (London: Jonathan Cape, 1956) [hb/Brian Wildsmith]
The Wine of Illusion (London: Jonathan Cape, 1957) [hb/Hans Tisdall]
A Work of Imagination: (The Pen – the Brush – the Well) (Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire: Colin Smythe, 1974) [hb/]

links

previous versions of this entry

Internet Archive