The Fabulous Matter of Fact: Poetics of Neil M. Gunn

The 20th-century Scottish novelist, Neil M.Gunn, is perhaps best remembered for his evocative accounts of Highland life in “The Silver Darlings”, “Morning Tide”, and “Highland River”. Recognized by his contemporaries, T.S.Eliot and Hugh MacDiarmid, as an interesting and important writer, his books have touched the hearts and minds of men and women all over the world. This study is a comprehensive account of all his novels, over 20 in total, supplementing close textual criticism with reference to his poetry, short stories, essays and letters. It identifies and discusses his illusions and key sources and relates his work to the values of the late 19th-century Celtic Twilight writers. The later novels are discussed in terms of an increasing interest in the limitations and loci of human compassion and there is close study of an early novel never published in book form.