Editing The Light and the Dark

{{Short description|1947 novel by C. P. Snow}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book
<!-- |italic title = (see above) -->
| name             = The Light and the Dark: a novel
| image            = File:TheLightAndTheDark.jpg
| caption          = First edition cover
| author           = [[C. P. Snow]]
| title_orig       = 
| translator       = 
| illustrator      = 
| cover_artist     = 
| country          =  United Kingdom
| language         =  English
| series           =  Strangers and Brothers
<!-- | subject = n/a as fiction --> 
| genre            = 
| publisher        =  London : Faber<ref name="solo-bod">http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/solo "Search result from Oxford University libraries"</ref>
| pub_date         =  1947<ref name="solo-bod"/>
| english_pub_date = 
| media_type       =  Print
| pages            =  392<ref name="solo-bod"/>
| isbn             = 
| oclc             = 
| dewey            = 
| congress         = 
| preceded_by      = [[The Conscience of the Rich]]
| followed_by      = [[The Masters (novel)|The Masters]]
}}

'''''The Light and the Dark''''' is the fourth novel in [[C. P. Snow]]'s ''[[Strangers and Brothers]]'' series.<ref>{{cite book |author= Snow, C. P |author-link = |title= The Light and the Dark |place= New York |publisher= Charles Scribner's Sons|url=https://archive.org/details/lightdarklightda0000cpsn/page/n5/mode/2up |url-access=registration |year= 1947 |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> The book portrays narrator Lewis Eliot's friendship with Roy Calvert, and Calvert's inner turmoil and quest for meaning in life. Calvert was based on Snow's friend, [[Coptic language|Coptic]] scholar, [[Charles Allberry]].<ref>{{cite journal | title=C. P. Snow | last=Snow | first=P | year=2006 | journal=Christ's College Magazine | volume=231 | pages=67–9 }}</ref> Their relationship is developed further in ''The Masters''.

==Plot synopsis==
Set in England in the lead-up to and during [[World War II]], it portrays Lewis Eliot's friendship with the gifted scholar and remarkable individual Roy Calvert, and Calvert's inner turmoil and quest for meaning in life.

==Title==
The title—The Light and the Dark—refers to the beliefs of [[Manichaeism]], which the book refers to as "Christian heresy" but is now often referred to as religion in its own right. "In its cosmology, the whole of cosmology is a battle of the light against the dark. Man's spirit is part of the light, and his flesh of the dark."<ref>{{cite book | title=The Light and the Dark | last=Snow | first=C.P. |author-link=C. P. Snow | pages=37–8 }}</ref> The title also has resonance to the buildup to war, the sense of catastrophe so widespread in the 1930s, and Calvert's mental health problems.

==Reception==
In 1947, a book review in ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' called the book "A rather long drawn out search of a brilliant scholar to escape his doom of despair and find a meaning in his life." and summarized; "Good writing and interesting characterizations fail to keep the book from tedious periods."<ref name="kirkus">{{cite journal|title=''The Light and the Dark'' |newspaper=Kirkus Reviews|date=17 February 1947|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/c-p-snow/the-light-and-the-dark/ }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Strangers and Brothers}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Light and the Dark, The}}
[[Category:1947 British novels]]
[[Category:English novels]]
[[Category:Novels by C. P. Snow]]
[[Category:Faber & Faber books]]


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