English Literature, 20th cent. to the Present: Biographies

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature Contemporary Novelists Further reading

Unsworth, Barry

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | | Copyright

Unsworth, Barry (1930– ), novelist, born in Durham to a mining family, and educated at the University of Manchester. The wide range of his subsequent travels and his interest in history are reflected in his novels, which include The Partnership (1966), Moonraker's Gift (1973), Pascali's Island (1980), and Stone Virgin (1985). Sacred Hunger (1992) is a powerful and carefully researched narrative set in the mid-17th cent. describing the voyage (and appalling conditions on board) of a slave ship, the Liverpool Merchant, from England to Africa to America, where some of the crew and the surviving slaves set up a commune under the influence of the principles of Rousseau. The ship's freethinking doctor becomes a leader in this new world, but is pursued by the son of the doomed ship's bankrupt owner, motivated by vengeance and the ‘sacred hunger’ for profit. Morality Play (1995) is a detective story set amidst a troupe of medieval travelling players, and After Hannibal (1996) a fable of greed and exploitation set in modern summer-home Umbria.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Unsworth, Barry." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 31 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Unsworth, Barry." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 31, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-UnsworthBarry.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Unsworth, Barry." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 31, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-UnsworthBarry.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Rewriting darkness: imperial knowledge in Barry Unsworth's Sacred... Magazine article from: Studies in the Novel; 3/22/2011
	The Dark Angel : Barry Unsworth's Career. Magazine article from: The World and I; 4/1/2000
	THE DRAMATIC CONVERSION OF NICHOLAS BARBER IN BARRY UNSWORTH'S MORALITY PLAY Magazine article from: Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature; 4/1/2006