George Passant

<p>Lewis Eliot, the diffident protagonist of the <i>Strangers and Brothers </i>sequence, retreats to the background in this absorbing study of his mentor, George Passant, a charismatic solicitor''s clerk. </p><p>In the years of economic depression between the wars, George - an idealistic radical bursting with notions of creating the world anew - gathers about him a group of young people who, restive and ambitious, trust him to emancipate them from the constraints of their provincial lives. But when his lofty aspirations become muddied with a need for money and desire for sexual freedom, his power over the group becomes a danger to them all.</p><p>Politics, people and the rapidly changing social landscape of inter-war Britain are narrated with Snow''s trademark subtlety and precision in this fascinating analysis of a god with feet of clay. </p><p>A meticulous study of the public issues and private problems of post-war Britain, C. P. Snow''s <i>Strangers and Brothers </i>sequence is a towering achievement that stands alongside Anthony Powell''s <i>A Dance to the Music of Time </i>as one of the great romans-fleuves of the twentieth century.</p>