Understanding Alan Bennett by Peter Wolfe (review)

Reviews 511 there is no point in trying to "de-Coward" his plays (t92), that one must instead "[IJisten to him. He knew what he was doing" (184). At the opposite extreme, Coveney and Prowse are prepared to distort and take liberties that they realize Coward himself would have loathed (168). This division is argued in relation to specific plays and productions with a liveliness that disproves Coward's own "gnawing suspicion that I was nothing but a jester [... whose) name would be obliterated from public memory" (dust jacket). Much of his drama still plays robustly (at least to English-speaking audiences), and there is a lot to explore in trying to understand why this should be so. PETER WOLFE. Understanding Alan Bennett. Understanding Contemporary British Literature. Columbia: .University of South Carolina Press, 1999. Pp. 255. $24.95 (Hb). Reviewed by Dominic She/lard, University ofSheffield As Peter Wolfe points out, Alan Bennett was famously described by John Heilpem in 1995 as being "one of England's national treasures" (230), and he remains, at the tum ofthe twenty-first century, an enigmatic, semi-royal figure who captures in his writing Britain's obsession with national heritage and suburban politesse. He has also (rather successfully) avoided undue critical scrutiny, and Wolfe's Understanding Alan Bennett seeks to fill that void. This benevolent account of Bennett's work is part of a series produced by the University of South Carolina Press entitled Understanding Contemporary British Literature. The series, according to the editor's preface, has been planned as "guides or companions for students as well as good nonacademic readers" and aims to provide "instruction in how to read certain contemporary writers" (n. pag.). These worthy aims and, in particular, the notion of the "good nonacademic reader" are, of course, pure Alan Bennett, and I could envisage Thora Hird making similar observations about dancing tutors or well-respected local librarians from a corner table in a smoky cafe in one of Bennett's televized monologues. Fortunately, Wolfe rises above this and provides a thorough, well-argued account of Bennett's output, from his post-Cambridge collaboration with Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, and Jonathan Miller in the early 1960s to the magnificent Writing Home in the t990s. _ _ Wolfe eschews a strict chronological progression through Bennett's work in favour of a thematic clustering of separate texts into six chapters, and this seems a shrewd decision that functions well. The slightly uncertain opening chapter, "Tracking the Fringe," provides a frustratingly tantalizing insight into Bennett's life but is succeeded by well-argued chapters that investigate examples of his work dealing with England, history Ca key theme, according to 512 REVIEWS Wolfe), corporate bonds, and spies and that demonstrate his talent for television scripts. One of the most appealing traits of this book is the way that Wolfe identifies key themes, provides simple, convincing evidence for their existence, and cogently describes how several pieces of writing share the same trait. Hence, chapter two ("Ho, to Be in England") concentrates on the many depictions of failure in Bennett's work (Hilary in The Old Countly, Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad, and George III in the play that investigates his lapse into madness, for example). Chapter three ("Some Uses of History") examines how Bennett's training as a historian (seven years of study at Oxford) is reflected in Forty Years On, A Day Out, A Private Function, Enjoy, and The Madness of George lII,while chapter five ("Spies and Other Exiles") argues that Bennett is right to reject the claim that he is fascinated with spies, as what really intrigues him is the state ofexile. Wolfe is also eager to give due recognition to Bennett's writing for television, and this results in a useful introduction to his numerous televisual vignettes in the final chapter, "On the Small Screen." Wolfe's book is a compact, well-organized, and highly sympathetic account of Alan Bennett's writing. Personally, I would have liked to see a rather more rigorous scrutiny of his output and a more comprehensive investigation of the link between Bennett's roots and his arguably slanted depiction of northern England. His authorship of the...