Ronald Firbank

106
Ronald Firbank bigraphy, stories - British novelist

Ronald Firbank : biography

17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926

Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative British novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with references to religion, social-climbing, and sexuality.

Firbank’s published works

Early publications

  • ‘An Early Flemish Painter’, in The Academy; 73 (28 September 1903), p. 948 (about Jan Gossaert).
  • ‘La Princesse Aux Soleils Romance Parlee …(Trad. de l’anglais par l’auteur)’, in Les Essais. Revue Mensuelle; II (November 1904), pp. 78–80.
  • "Harmonie … (trad. de l’anglais par l’auteur)", in Les Essais. Revue Mensuelle; II (February 1905), pp. 305–06.
  • "Souvenir D’Automne. A Poem In Prose". Supplement to The King and His Navy and Army; 21 (2 December 1905).
  • Odette d’Antrevernes And A Study in Temperament (stories, 1905).
  • Odette D’Antevernes (1905) [separate large-paper edition].
  • "The Wavering Disciple. A Fantasia", in Granta; 20 (1906 November 24), pp. 110–11 and 20 (5 December 1906), pp. 130–32.
  • "A Study In Opal", in Granta; 21 (2 November 1907).

Major works

  • Vainglory … With a Frontispiece by Felicien Rops (novel, 1915)
  • Inclinations … With two Drawings by Albert Rutherston (Rothenstein) (novel, 1916)
  • Caprice … With a Frontispiece by Augustus John (novel, 1917)
  • ‘Fantasia For Orchestra In F Sharp Minor’, in Art and Letters; II N.S. (1919 Spring), p. 64-79 [Draft of a chapter of Valmouth (1919)]
  • Valmouth – A Romantic Novel … With A Frontispiece By Augustus John (novel, 1919)
  • The Princess Zoubaroff – A Comedy … With Frontispiece and Decoration by Michel Sevier (play, 1920)
  • "Santal" (story, 1921)
  • The Flower Beneath The Foot – Being a Record of the Early Life of St. Laura De Nazianzi and the Times in which She Lived … With a Decoration By C.R.W. Nevinson and Portraits by Augustus John and Wyndham Lewis (novel, 1923)
  • ‘A Broken Orchid (From Sorrow in Sunlight)’, in The Reviewer; 4 (1923 October), p. 15-19
  • Sorrow in Sunlight (published in the U.S.A. as Prancing Nigger; novel, 1924)
  • Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli (novel, 1926)

Posthumous publications

  • The Artificial Princess … With an Introduction by Sir Coleridge Kennard (novel, 1934) [written c. 1915].
  • "Lady Appledore’s Mesalliance", in Cornhill Magazine; 172 (story, summer 1962), pp. 399–425 [written c. 1908].
  • The New Rythum And Other Pieces (novel fragment, 1962) [incl. extracts from The Mauve Tower (play written c. 1904), A Disciple From The Country (play), "The Widow’s Love" and "A Tragedy in Green"].
  • The Wind & The Roses …Introduction by Miriam J. Benkovitz, privately printed (poem, 1966)
  • Ronald Firbank Far Away … Note by Miriam J. Benkovitz (1966) [written 1904].
  • Ronald Firbank – When Widows Love & A Tragedy in Green …Introduced by Edward Martin Potoker (1980).

Biography

Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank was born in Britain on 17 January 1886, at Clarges Street in London, the son of MP Sir Thomas Firbank and Lady Harriet Jane (nee Garrett). He had an older brother, Joseph Sydney (born 1884), and a younger brother, Hubert Somerset (born 1887), and sister, Heather (born 1888).M. J. Benkovitz, Ronald Firbank A Biography (1969), p.11-13 At the age of ten he went briefly to Uppingham School (September 1900 to April 1901)I. Kyrle Fletcher, Ronald Firbank A Memoir (1930) and then on to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He converted to Catholicism in 1907. In 1909 he left Cambridge without taking a degree.