Posted by Bruce A Clarke on November 17, 2000 at 08:47:02 from 203.149.1.59:
Ransome and Shute
Two authors of very popular books who lived through the same times during their major writing periods are Arthur Ransome and Neville Shute.
Both writers were very popular during their lifetimes and each has a strong following many years after their deaths. Arthur Ransome is famous for his Swallows and Amazon series of children books, which are most frequently read by adults today, while Neville Shute, wrote novels mainly concerning adults (except for Pied Piper).
Neville Shute had a great interest in aeroplanes having been involved with the design, building and repair of all types including an episode with airships, thus his books frequently have aircraft of various types playing an active part in his plots. Writing during the late 1920's almost continuously until the 1950's, he reflected in his novels the times and events of his time from the development of motor cars, to wartime events, changes in aircraft and even the atomic age.
Arthur Ransome by contrast appears in all his novels to be existing somewhere around the 1930's. Even though his Swallow and Amazon books were written in the 1930's and 1940's, he seems to ignore the changes that occurred around him.
Ransome had as one character Dick Cullum, the scientist, who one would have expected to reflect the technological changes of the time but even Dick Cullum appears to have stayed with the scientific advances of the late 1920's. In none of Ransome's novels is there mention of an aeroplane, yet during the Second World War he lived in Norfolk in the UK, the site of many airfields from which large numbers of aircraft flew to fight the war over Europe. Not a mention of aircraft or war occurs. Why?
He also wrote of only one major motorcar, "rattletrap" which would seem to be a car of the early 1920's. He does discuss other mechanical things such as trains, the Beckfoot launch and buses but never aeroplanes.
Ransome appears to be an author whose outstanding popularity rose from the fact he wrote about a timeless land and ageless children, Shute's popularity is maybe because he wrote about events and people who could be identified by real people experiencing real events.
A comparison of literary styles and content between Shute and Ransome is interesting as both claimed Defoe, Stevenson and Twain as mentors to their writing styles, yet one was modern and up to date for his time and the other existed in a fictional, stationary world.
What is the reason why two such different authors tend to appeal to the same modern day reader?