Dark Places of the Heart

Book by Christina Stead

Dark Places of the Heart

First edition

Author| Christina Stead
Country| Australia
Language| English
Genre| Literary fiction
Publisher| Holt, Rinehart and Winston

Publication date

| 1966
Media type| Print
Pages| 352pp
Preceded by| The People with the Dogs
Followed by| The Little Hotel

Dark Places of the Heart (1966) is a novel by Australian writer Christina Stead. This novel is also known by the title Cotter's England.[1]

## Story outline[edit]

Set in post-war northern England the novel follows the fortunes of Nellie Cook, sister Peggy Cotter and brother Tom, and their familial and external relationships.

## Critical reception[edit]

Writing in The Canberra Times, Neville Braybrooke notes that the book is a "masterly depiction of working class life, both in the north and south of England, it has a freshness of vision which makes it unique."[2]

A reviewer in Kirkus Review was a little ambivalent about the book: "Like her best novel, it is a hurdy gurdy of domestic crises, strewn with slashing, colorful speech, vigorous rhythms and social detail. Yet it has a strangely melancholic air and an uncertain jumble of incidents, as if the author were never sure either of her descriptive powers or of the intended emotional design."[3]

## See also[edit]

* 1966 in literature

## References[edit]

1. ^ Austlit - Dark Places of the Heart by Christina Stead
2. ^ "Christina Stead's Latest" by Neville Braybrooke, The Canberra Times, 20 May 1967, p10
3. ^ Kirkus Reviews - Dark Places of the Heart by Christina Stead

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Works by Christina Stead

Novels|

* Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934)
* The Beauties and Furies (1936)
* House of All Nations (1938)
* The Man Who Loved Children (1940)
* For Love Alone (1944)
* Letty Fox: Her Luck (1946)
* A Little Tea, a Little Chat (1948)
* The People with the Dogs (1952)
* Dark Places of the Heart (1966)
* The Little Hotel (1973)
* Miss Herbert (The Suburban Wife) (1976)
* I'm Dying Laughing: The Humourist (1986)

Collections|

* The Salzburg Tales (1934)
* The Puzzleheaded Girl: Four Novellas (1965)
* A Christina Stead Reader (1978)
* Ocean of Story: The Uncollected Stories of Christina Stead (1985)

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