- Only Fade Away
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Only Fade Away 
Author(s) Bruce Marshall Country Scotland Language English Genre(s) Novel Publication date 1954 Media type Print (Hardback) Pages 303 ISBN N/A Preceded by The Fair Bride (1953) Followed by Girl in May (1956) Only Fade Away is a 1954 novel by Scottish writer Bruce Marshall.
Plot summary
A change of pace for Marshall, this book is only peripherally concerned with matters of faith and religion. Strang Methuen is an old soldier, a stiff-necked Scot who serves in the British Army in two world wars. Methuen is able to show more courage in the face of enemy fire than when dealing with friends and family—those he loves and hates.
Methuen has been bullied since his school days by Hermiston. For nearly 40 years, every time he thinks he has escaped or defeated the bully, a quirk of fate makes Methuen the goat again.
The very qualities that keep him from winning, integrity and personal honor, also make him a sympathetic and interesting character.
A revelation about his beloved daughter almost crushes Methuen, but he recovers. The story ends when Methuen, now a Brigadier General fighting in World War II Italy, uses his experience and wiles to perform a vital military maneuver, preventing a major defeat. Unfortunately Hermiston, in an attempt to finally put things right, makes a confession which puts Methuen's achievement in a bad light. He is demoted and leaves the service in disgrace.[1][2]
References
- ^ "Mixed Fiction". Time magazine. December 27, 1954. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,857938-2,00.html. Retrieved May 8, 2009. Only Fade Away book review
- ^ Marshall, B: Only Fade Away The Riverside Press Cambridge 1954.
Works by Bruce Marshall Novels A Thief in the Night (ca 1918) • This Sorry Scheme (1924) • The Stooping Venus (1926) • Teacup Terrace (1926) • And There Were Giants (1927) • The Other Mary (1927) • High Brows (1929) • The Little Friend (1929) • The Rough House, a possibility (1930) • Children of This Earth (1930) • Father Malachy's Miracle (1931) • Prayer for the Living (1934) • The Uncertain Glory (1935) • Canon to the Right of Them (1936) • Luckypenny (1937) • Delilah Upside Down, a Tract, with a Thrill (1941) • Yellow Tapers for Paris (1943) • The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith (1944) • George Brown's Schooldays (1946) • Vespers in Vienna (1947) • To Every Man a Penny (1949) • The Fair Bride (1953) • Only Fade Away (1954) • Girl in May (1956) • The Accounting (1958) • A Thread of Scarlet (1959) • The Divided Lady (1960) • A Girl from Lübeck (1962) • The Month of the Falling Leaves (1963) • Father Hilary's Holiday (1965) • The Bishop (1970) • The Black Oxen (1972) • Urban the Ninth (1973) • Operation Iscariot (1974) • Marx the First (1975) • Peter the Second (1976) • The Yellow Streak (1977) • Prayer for a Concubine (1978) • Flutter in the Dovecote (1986) • A Foot in the Grave (1987) • An Account of Capers (1988)
Non-fiction The White Rabbit (1953) • Thoughts of My Cats (1954)
Other Contribution to A Time to Laugh (1949) • "The Curé of Ars," chapter in Saints for Now (1952) • Introduction to Rue Notre Dame (1953) • Foreword to Top Secret Mission (1955)
Categories:- Novels by Bruce Marshall
- 1954 novels
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