 First edition (publ. Jonathan Cape) | |
| Author | Ellen Glasgow |
|---|---|
Publication date | January 1, 1941 |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize for Novel (1942) |
In This Our Life is a 1941 novel by the American writer Ellen Glasgow. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942. [1] The title is a quote from the sonnet sequence Modern Love by George Meredith: "Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul/ When hot for certainties in this our life!"
Sterling North, writing for the Chicago Daily News, provided a mixed review of the novel. North noted that the novel includes "distinguished prose"and "believable characters" and that Glasgow "can fashion a story with remarkable craftsmanship". However, North indicated the novel's "concepts are still in the artistic cul-de-sac which stopped so many of the famous writers of the 1920s. Even when her characters have a 'vein of iron' they are dangerously immature emotionally. [...] Sex, when mentioned, is in terms of romantic conquest, the 'destructive' impulse, light flirtation, or something slightly ugly. Otherwise emotional energy is spent in acquiring a 'vein of iron' or [...] selfish and trivial gratifications." [2]
In 1941 Warner Brothers purchased the film rights for $40,000 and quickly began casting the film In This Our Life . In the end, the film starred Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as the sisters. Screenwriter Howard Koch adapted the novel for the screen, downplaying the incestuous aspect of William Fitzroy's relationship with his niece Stanley, and the portrayal of contemporary racial discrimination in the South. Koch also gave the characters played by Olivia de Havilland and George Brent a happy ending, together, that does not occur in the novel. [3]
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Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow was an American novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1942 for her novel In This Our Life. She published 20 novels, as well as short stories, to critical acclaim. A lifelong Virginian, Glasgow portrayed the changing world of the contemporary South in a realistic manner, differing from the idealistic escapism that characterized Southern literature after Reconstruction.
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In This Our Life is a 1942 American drama film, the second to be directed by John Huston. The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1941 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Ellen Glasgow. The cast included the established stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland as sisters and rivals in romance and life. Raoul Walsh also worked as director, taking over when Huston was called away for a war assignment after the United States entered World War II, but he was uncredited. This film was the third of six films that de Havilland and Davis starred in together.
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The Ellen Glasgow House, also known as the Branch-Glasgow House, is a historic house at 1 West Main Street in Richmond, Virginia. Built in 1841, it is nationally significant as the home of writer Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) from 1887 until her death. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
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