Dead Babies is Martin Amis's second novel, published in 1975 by Jonathan Cape. Its first UK and US paperback edition was published under the title Dark Secrets.[1] Amis's second novel—a parody of Agatha Christie's country-house mysteries[2]—takes place over a single weekend at a manor called Appleseed Rectory. In 2000, the book was adapted into a film of the same name, starring Paul Bettany and Olivia Williams. In 2001, BBC critic David Wood wrote "Amis's second novel ranks among his most incendiary with its mordant wit, black comedy, and sense of the violently absurd."[3] It has an epigraph attributed to the Cynic Menippus and the novel has been interpreted as a Menippean satire.[4]
 First UK edition | |
| Author | Martin Amis |
|---|---|
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Knopf (US) Jonathan Cape (UK) |
Publication date | 1975 |
| Preceded by | The Rachel Papers |
| Followed by | Success |
Further reading edit
- Bentley, Nick (2014). Martin Amis (Writers and Their Work). Northcote House Publishing Ltd.
- Bradford, Richard (November 2012). Martin Amis: The Biography. Pegasus. ISBN 978-1605983851.
- Diedrick, James (2004). Understanding Martin Amis (Understanding Contemporary British Literature). University of South Carolina Press.
- Finney, Brian (2013). Martin Amis (Routledge Guides to Literature). Routledge.
- Keulks, Gavin (2003). Father and Son: Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis, and the British Novel Since 1950. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299192105.
- Keulks, Gavin (2006). Martin Amis: Postmodernism and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230008304.
- Tredell, Nicolas (2000). The Fiction of Martin Amis (Readers' Guides to Essential Criticism). Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 23–33. ISBN 9781840461350.
References edit
- ^ Amazon
- ^ Thomas Jones, "Short Cuts", London Review of Books, 16 November 2000
- ^ David Wood, "Dead Babies", BBC, 22 January 2001
- ^ Stolarek, Joanna (2011). "Narrative and Narrated Homicide": The Vision of Contemporary Civilisation in Martin Amis's Postmodern Detective Fiction (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Silesia. Retrieved 1 September 2023.
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