Household, Geoffrey
Entry updated 31 July 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1900-1988) UK author whose life abroad between about 1920 and 1945 was exceedingly catch-as-catch-can, though he left the army after World War Two as a Lieutenant-Colonel. He remains best known for Rogue Male (1939), filmed as Man Hunt (1941) directed by Fritz Lang, a dark and solitudinous updating of the thrillers of John Buchan, whose protagonist misses a chance to assassinate Hitler (unnamed in the text; only the spine image of the original dustjacket points to Nazi Germany); he goes to ground in England and returns to the surface almost supernaturally transfigured and ready to do the job properly. The tale has a Slingshot Ending whose outcome hovers just on the wrong side of the Jonbar Point: he leaves for Europe, and we will soon know if he has succeeded this time around.
Before publishing this paradigmatic tale, Household had released a Young Adult novel, The Terror of Villadonga (1936; rev vt The Spanish Cave 1936), about the discovery of a prehistoric Dinosaur-like sea-beast; The Third Hour (1937), which sends its protagonist to South America in search of Utopia, but where he finds "The Third Hour", a group planning world conquest; and The Salvation of Pisco Gabar and Other Stories (coll 1938), which contains several fantasies. Later novels with fantastic content include Thing to Love (1953), a Near Future tale of civil war in an imaginary Latin American country; The Dance of the Dwarfs (1968), where feral prehistoric survivals (see Devolution) cause some horrific damage in the Amazon basin; and The Cats to Come (1975), a fantasy about a future Earth ruled by Cats. Hostage: London; The Diary of Julian Despard (1977) is genuine sf, a Near-Future chase thriller set in a beleaguered London; The Sending (1980) is a dark fantasy; Summon the Bright Water (1981) is a Science-Fantasy tale invoking Atlantis; and Arrows of Desire (1985), set in a crumbling Post-Holocaust UK, expresses once again, and for the final time, Household's profound doubt that humanity could ever govern itself with dignity. [JC]
Geoffrey Edward West Household
born Bristol, England: 30 November 1900
died Banbury, Oxfordshire: 4 October 1988
works
- The Terror of Villadonga (London: Hutchinson, 1936) [hb/]
- The Spanish Cave (Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 1936) [rev vt of the above: illus/hb/Henry C Pitz]
- The Third Hour (London: Chatto and Windus, 1937) [hb/Artur Barbosa]
- The Salvation of Pisco Gabar and Other Stories (London: Chatto and Windus, 1938) [coll: hb/Robert G Campbell]
- Rogue Male (London: Chatto and Windus, 1939) [hb/]
- Thing to Love (London: Michael Joseph, 1963) [hb/]
- The Dance of the Dwarfs (London: Michael Joseph, 1968) [hb/Michael Trevithick]
- The Cats to Come (London: Michael Joseph, 1975) [hb/]
- Hostage: London; The Diary of Julian Despard (London: Michael Joseph, 1977) [hb/Chris Yates]
- The Sending (London: Michael Joseph, 1980) [hb/Chris Yates]
- Summon the Bright Water (London: Michael Joseph, 1981) [hb/Chris Yates]
- Arrows of Desire (London: Michael Joseph, 1985) [hb/Chris Yates]
links
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