James Aldridge works. James Aldridge biography

Aldridge James (b. 1918) - English writer, publicist.

Major works: “The Sea Eagle” (1944), “The Diplomat” (1949), “The Last Inch” (1959), “Mountains and Weapons” (1974), “Last Look” (1977).

Below, read a short biography of James Aldridge.

Aldridge was born into an English family, spent his childhood in Australia, and worked from the age of fourteen, combining journalism with education. Subsequently he becomes a student at Oxford University, studying economics. At the same time, Aldridge dreams of becoming a pilot and enrolls in an aviation school. During World War II, as a reporter, he covered combat events in Norway, Albania, Egypt, and Libya.

Aldridge writes works filled with humanistic pathos. He is convinced that the forces of reason and justice should become the basis of the life of the human community. Aldridge boldly opposes the incitement of war between nations and advocates the establishment of peace on earth. In 1953, the writer was awarded a gold medal by the World Peace Council for his novel “The Diplomat.”

Features of creativity in the biography of James Aldridge

Aldridge's work is varied: essays, reports, political speeches, stories, short stories, novels. The writer addresses different topics. Aldridge's first works are dedicated to the struggle of Greek partisans against the German occupation (the novels “A Matter of Honor”, ​​“The Sea Eagle”), and the struggle of colonial peoples for their independence (“The Diplomat”).

The author reveals social contradictions in the works “Prisoner of the Earth” and “Dangerous Game”. Also reveals the beauty of the soul little man, his courage, nobility, humanity. On the problem of alienation between relatives people are walking speech in the story “The Last Inch”. The human drama depicted in the work is a fairly common phenomenon, because it is a consequence of egregious social problems. Father and son cannot find a common language. An unexpected misfortune brings them together. And the author does not answer whether Ben and Davy will be able to overcome the last inch of alienation.

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English writer and public figure, Australian by birth. James Aldridge r He was born on July 10, 1918 in Australia, in Swanhill, Victoria, where he spent, in his words, a “Tom-Sawyer-like” free childhood, full of adventures..
James Aldridge at studied at the Melbourne Commercial College. In 1938 he moved to England. During the Second World War James Aldridge worked as a journalist and war correspondent.

James Aldridge- one of those figures who are so strongly associated with a bygone, and long-gone, era that you are surprised to discover a contemporary in him. In the official biography there is only one date in brackets after the name. Yes and last book Aldridge“The Girl from the Sea” was published in a series of literature for teenagers by Puffin at Penguin Books Australia as recently as 2002, and was even shortlisted for one of the prestigious literary awards.

About in old childhood James Aldridge full of adventure can and should be read in the story “My Brother Tom”, in the novel “The True Story of Lilly Stubeck”, in other “Australian” books Aldridge, where autobiography cannot be separated from fiction, and it’s not worth it. At fourteen James Aldridge He went as a delivery boy to the editorial office of one of the Melbourne newspapers, and at eighteen he set off to conquer London. James Aldridge entered Oxford, attended flying courses, and most importantly, began a journalistic career, collaborating with several London newspapers.

“You were so green, so enthusiastic, so shy, terribly insecure and at the same time ruff and with such a devilish determination to achieve your goal in any way...” This is how fellow editors characterize the hero of the novel “Last Look”, in opening remarks to which the author warns readers that they should not buy into the obvious autobiography: “... it is pure fiction, and not a manipulation of facts.” This novel, far from being the most famous and perhaps not the most powerful James Aldridge, still deserves attention. “Last Look” is about the friendship of two great writers of that era: Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, seen through the eyes of a young journalist, so deliberately based on the author. However James Aldridge, as if not entirely sure of his right to speak on this topic, asks for “the indulgence of many people who knew these writers closely, but perhaps did not see the drama of their friendship the way I see it.” After all, the parallel with Hemingway haunted James Aldridge Always. Their biographies are already parallel: journalism at the beginning of their careers, extreme, military journalism, smoothly turning into literature. (By the way, in “Last Look,” Fitzgerald sarcastically tells his friend Ernest that he is too good a journalist to become a good writer.)

In creativity - parallel interest in the same themes, conflicts, characters. Stylistic similarity, and most importantly - the same value system, which works so well and flawlessly in war or in extreme extreme situations like “The Old Man and the Sea” or “The Last Inch”, but for some reason sagging and unclaimed in normal life peaceful life. Hemingway ultimately could not live with this, putting a terrible and spectacular end to his biography.

James Aldridge- I was able to, choosing a long, quiet life with my family in a small house on the outskirts of London. The first option is undoubtedly more advantageous and brighter in the eyes of descendants, the second is more likely to remain in the shadows. Comparison of Hemingway's books and James Aldridge does not turn out to be correct: the shadow is cast by the myth that the first one created from his life. Which, you see, is a completely separate talent, not necessarily attached to literary talent. Biography James Aldridge It also started out exciting.

As a war journalist, James Aldridge He made his debut at the age of 21 in the Finnish War and was soon expelled from the country for his sympathy for the USSR, which was unacceptable for Finns (at least that is the official Soviet version). During the Second World War he managed to visit Norway, Greece, Egypt, Libya, Iran, and spent 1944-45 in the Soviet Union. T. Kudryavtseva recalls that foreign journalists lived in Moscow at the Metropol Hotel, from where they walked along the snow-covered Kuznetsky Bridge to a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for reports from the fronts, on the basis of which correspondence was written. Of course, there were also carefully organized group trips around the country, to recently liberated territories (in one of the articles of the 80s James Aldridge writes with some nostalgia about a trip to Sevastopol and Chersonesus, where the last battles have just ended).

In the USSR they knew how to work with the foreign press. At the journalist's James Aldridge Friendly and working contacts began here, which continued after the war and resulted both in cooperation with Soviet periodicals, and in translations and mass editions of his books. James Aldridge became one of those writers who were published and promoted for the sole reason that he was “ours.” He said correct speeches before Soviet intellectuals, gave correct instructions Soviet schoolchildren, wrote the right articles about the decaying capitalist society and made the right accents, comparing it with our Soviet one: “Your youth is sometimes cheerful, sometimes sad. Sometimes she has to make sacrifices.

Nevertheless, I have never seen the hopelessly extinguished gaze of Soviet young men and women, so characteristic of our unemployed youth” (“Smena”, 1985). His articles and essays were published in the magazines Smena and Ogonyok, Foreign Literature and Problems of Peace and Socialism, the newspapers Pravda and Evening Leningrad", "Literary newspaper". Reading them, it is difficult to understand to what extent the author was sincere, and to what extent he “worked off” his literary success and recognition here, one sixth. In any case, there is much more journalism than agitation, lively, casual conversation than dogmatic rhetoric, and romantic naivety slips through in a touching rather than a false note: “Someone told me that in the room I occupied at the National Hotel” , lived Lenin when he first came from Petrograd to Moscow. ... And although I don’t know whether this is true or not, I really like to think that it was so. I am a romantic at heart, and it gives me great pleasure to sit in this sunny room and imagine what Lenin was thinking in 1918, when he looked from the window at these roofs, at the Kremlin wall...” (“Evening Leningrad”, 1954). “If a Solar-Soviet Friendship Society is created, I will join it with great pleasure. After launch space rocket my friend, the Sun has somehow become closer” (“Literaturnaya Gazeta”, 1959).

But if your impressions of Soviet reality James Aldridge presented mainly in the genre, as it is now called, of an author's column (where, by definition, a certain optionality is hidden behind the brilliance of style) or an almost artistic essay, then about “capitalist reality,” that is, about the problems and troubles of the country where he did not live at all in a room National Hotel, James Aldridge writes serious analytics.

About double and triple standards in politics, about the twisted ideology of the “nuclear umbrella”, about the technologies of the commercial press, about the blurring of guidelines in a society aimed at consumption. Of course, in the Soviet country such revelations went with a bang. But it's not that. Sincere indignation and pain can be read, for example, in the essay “Vulgarization of Freedom” (1976) published in Foreign Literature. Could a person who so mercilessly and accurately analyzed his native reality be so rosyly mistaken in his assessment of Soviet reality? In principle, why not.

In that polar and definite system of ethical values ​​that runs through his books, obvious evil certainly had to be opposed by adequate good. He saw right through the evil of the Western system. He sincerely wanted to see the good of the Soviet Union, and he probably succeeded. In official biographies James Aldridge wrote that it was his pro-Soviet position that was the reason for the modest success of his books in the West. To some extent, apparently, this is true. Your political sympathies James Aldridge formulated very clearly, not understanding how it could be otherwise: “We are on the side of either the right or the wrong” (from the essay on the Cold War “Loyalty to Friendship”, “Foreign Literature”, 1985).

It's scary to imagine how many really good books either they don’t find a publisher at all, or they go unnoticed, getting lost in an increasingly powerful information flow. In counterpoint James Aldridge a key role was played by his now controversially perceived fascination with the Soviet Union. But if it weren’t for this, we probably would never have read “A Matter of Honor” and “The Sea Eagle,” “The Diplomat” and “The Hunter,” “Last Look” and “ True story Lilly Stubeck”... They wouldn’t have heard something so simple and precise: “It’s all in the last inch.”

James Aldridge.

Diplomat

Dear Reader - attention! This book was published in 1953, so you will find here the original spelling, grammar and punctuation in accordance with the rules adopted in the Russian language in those years; for example, “damn”, “apparently”, “whisper”, “dance” and so on. Don't be embarrassed by this, and enjoy your reading!

Translation from English by E. Kalashnikova, I. Kashkin and V. Toper.

The progressive English writer James Aldridge is familiar to Soviet readers not only as the author of talented works of art, but also as an active fighter for the cause of peace and security of nations.

Aldridge was born in 1917 in Australia and educated at Oxford University. During the Second World War, as a war correspondent for a number of English and American newspapers, he traveled to many countries of the world and visited many fronts of the war. He was in Norway, Greece, the Middle East, Iran, and lived for some time in the Soviet Union.

James Aldridge matured creatively during the Second World War. His formation as a progressive writer took place under the influence of the gigantic struggle waged by the Soviet Union and the peoples of other countries - participants in the anti-Hitler coalition against German fascism and Japanese imperialism.

In his first novels, A Matter of Honor (1942) and The Sea Eagle (1944), Aldridge depicts the struggle of Greek patriots against the Italian and German fascists who invaded Greece and shows the depth of the national betrayal of the Greek metaxist fascists who tried to thwart the struggle of the Greek people against the fascist invaders.

Aldridge's play The Forty-Ninth State appeared in 1946. In this work, in the form of political buffoonery, the author raises such an important issue as Anglo-American contradictions after the Second World War. The writer shows that the desire of the monopolistic circles of the United States of America for world domination creates a direct threat to England, its dominions and colonies. The play reveals the concern of the progressive English intelligentsia for the fate of their country, which, as a result of the anti-national policy of the Labor government, for the first time in history “lost its independence and freedom of action in the field of foreign, economic and military policy, submitting to a foreign power - the United States of America" ​​("Britain's Path to Socialism" - the program of the Communist Party of Great Britain (see "Bolshevik", 1951, No. 3, p. 53).

Aldridge, as an active public figure and prominent participant in the people's movement for peace and international security, takes an active part in the work of the English Peace Committee and participates as a delegate of England in the work of the Stockholm session of the Standing Committee of the World Peace Congress. After the American imperialists, with the support of their British, French and other allies, unleashed a bloody intervention in Korea, Aldridge declared: “If I had not been a member of the peace movement before, I would have joined it now.”

In March 1952, Aldridge came to the USSR to take part in celebrations dedicated to the centenary of the death of the great Russian writer N.V. Gogol. Aldridge's speech at the anniversary meeting is evidence of friendly feelings towards the Soviet people; she is filled with optimism and faith in the final victory of the cause of peace over the forces of reaction. He denounces the abomination and baseness of the Anglo-American imperialists, who view war as a profitable business, and says that “thousands of other conferences, popular conferences of peace supporters, are gathering all over the world. They defend our hopes, our future, and where our people’s peace conferences come into effect, a limit will be put on cynicism and violence” (“New Time”, 1952, No. 12, p. 19).

For Aldridge, the struggle for peace is inextricably linked with his work. The novel The Diplomat (1949), which the author worked on for four years, is convincing evidence of this.

In "The Diplomat" the author artistic means with great force he exposed the reactionary imperialist essence of England's foreign policy, revealed its treacherous, provocative methods, and showed the people who are the executors of practical measures carried out in terms of this policy. In parallel with this, the author gave the image of an honest young English scientist McGregor, who accidentally found himself in the diplomatic service after the Second World War. Realizing the true goals of English diplomacy - preparing a new world war - MacGregor breaks with the diplomatic service and comes to the camp of peace fighters.

The author used real historical events: the people's liberation movement in Iranian Azerbaijan after the Second World War and the creation of a local democratic government there, which carried out some democratic transformations. The reactionary Tehran government waged a fierce struggle against the democrats. England and the United States came to the aid of the Iranian reaction. Trying to mislead the world community and slander Iranian democrats, the British ruling circles launched a false version that the democratic movement in Iran was “organized by Moscow.”

It is against this backdrop that the action of the novel unfolds. The British Labor government sends one of its most experienced diplomats, Lord Essex, to Moscow and instructs him to obtain the consent of the Soviet government to create an international commission supposedly intended to investigate the situation in Iranian Azerbaijan, but in fact intended to serve as a weapon for crushing the democratic movement in Azerbaijan. Essex is accompanied by an employee of the British diplomatic service, a young paleontologist and participant in the Second World War, Ivre McGregor.

Essex and MacGregor are the main characters in the novel.

Essex is a representative of the English aristocracy. Occupying a high diplomatic post, he pursues a foreign policy that meets the interests of British imperialist circles.

McGregor comes from layers of the working intelligentsia. He grew up in Iran, fell in love with this country and realized that the reasons for the backwardness and poverty of the Iranian people lie in Iran's dependent position on British imperialism, which cruelly exploits the natural resources of the country and its people. At the beginning of the novel, MacGregor is shown as a novice in diplomacy and politics, he is still captivated by naive ideas and believes that the reactionary course of English foreign policy is explained by the fact that unscrupulous diplomats are in place, supplying the government with false information. He thinks that it is possible to change Essex’s line of behavior, “based on facts”, he can convince the English diplomat that the cause of the Iranian democrats is right. However, he becomes dismayed when he becomes convinced that the facts do not make any impression on Essex, that Essex is not looking for the truth in Iran, but only materials that would justify what he is doing in the interests of the British. ruling circles politics. Being an honest man, MacGregor does not want to help Essex in his dirty political machinations and at the end of the novel he openly opposes Essex and the foreign policy of the English government.

Harold Edward James Aldridge; Great Britain, London; 07/10/1918 – 02/23/2015

James Aldridge's books are one of the few that were able to break through iron curtain in USSR. The writer was awarded Lenin Prize“For strengthening peace between nations,” and his story “The Last Inch” was even used to make a film of the same name. By the way, two of the three films based on books by James Aldridge were produced in the USSR. But even abroad, the writer’s work was quite in demand, and he was repeatedly awarded various awards and prizes.

Biography of James Aldridge

James Aldridge was born in 1918 to William Thomas and Edith Quayle Aldridge. The family lived in the town of White Hill in northwestern Australia. James became the fifth child in the family and his mother paid a lot of attention to his upbringing. Somewhere in the mid-20s, the family moved to the larger town of Swan Hill, which was subsequently depicted more than once by James Aldridge in his books. After graduation, future writer entered Melbourne Commercial College.

In 1938, James Aldridge goes to London. Here he tries himself as a journalist, thanks to which in 1942 he gets a job as a war correspondent. It operates in Iran, the Middle East, as well as Greece and Cyprus. It was the events in Greece that formed the basis of James Aldridge's first book, A Matter of Honor. Like Aldridge, he was amazed by the capabilities of aviation and therefore his first book is about pilots. It literally becomes a bestseller immediately after publication, and for a long time remains the writer's best-selling book. Aldridge's subsequent book continues the theme of aviation during World War II, but it is not as successful. The year 1942 generally became significant in the writer’s biography. This year he married Dina Michnik, who bore him two sons.

James Aldridge received the greatest recognition for his book The Diplomat, which was published in 1949. In it, he tells the story of diplomatic and espionage passions immediately after the revolution in Iran. In subsequent books, Aldridge increasingly moves away from political and military topics and begins to work more and more in the field of children's literature. So in 1959 his story “The Last Inch” was published. It is noteworthy that in the USSR the story was published a little earlier in 1957. For some time Aldridge lived in Cairo, to which he dedicated a separate book. In 1971, the writer visited Moscow. Since 1960, James Aldridge's new books have become increasingly difficult to read. A writer publishes one book every three to four years. This continues until 2006, when James Aldridge's last book, The Wings of the Kitten of St. Clare, was published.

Books by James Aldridge on the Top Books website

James Aldridge’s books are quite popular to read, but of course the writer’s most famous work in our country is the story “The Last Inch.” Thanks to its presence in school curriculum This is not the first time he has taken high places among . And given the fairly stable interest in this story, it will be included in the ratings of our site more than once.

James Aldridge(born July 10, 1918) - English writer and public figure.

James Aldridge entered English literature in the early 40s; in a relatively short time he accomplished a significant creative evolution. Aldridge's birth as a writer and his ideological growth are closely related to the liberation struggle of peoples during the Second World War. Most of Aldridge's works are extremely topical; at the same time, he combines journalistic acuity with the gift of artistic generalizations. The writer's focus is on man and his search for freedom and happiness. The force of Aldridge's satirical denunciations is directed against those who try, in his words, to "build their calculations on lucrative deals with dead souls."

James Aldridge (b. 1918) was born in Australia, in Swanhill (Victoria), into the family of an English writer who settled here shortly before his birth. Already as a fourteen-year-old boy, he became a delivery boy at the editorial office of one of the Melbourne newspapers, while continuing to study. He also lived on the Isle of Man (near Scotland) in old house mother.

Having moved to England, Aldridge entered the university at Oxford; At the same time, he attended flying courses and actively collaborated in a number of London newspapers.

During the years of the liberation struggle of the Spanish people, young Aldridge followed with ardent sympathy all the vicissitudes of the historical battles against fascism in Spain, where many outstanding representatives of the English intelligentsia fought. The events of those days played a big role in the ideological formation of Aldridge, an anti-fascist.

Aldridge was 21 years old when he headed to Finland as a war correspondent. The keen-sighted journalist correctly assessed the events that unfolded before his eyes. The messages of the insightful correspondent included a condemnation of the destructive anti-national policies of the Finnish ruling circles of that time and recognition of the historical correctness of the Soviet Union. For this he was expelled from Finland.

During the Second World War, Aldridge traveled as a correspondent to many countries (Norway, Greece, Egypt, Libya, Iran, etc.) and to many theaters of war. He also visited the Soviet Union, where he spent almost a year (1944-1945). The writer was an eyewitness to the selfless struggle of the Soviet people, who gave everything for victory and played a decisive role in the defeat of Hitler’s military machine.

Aldridge's first books aroused considerable interest not only for their life-like truthfulness and authenticity of the narrative, but also for the deep democracy of the writer, who was vitally interested in the victory of the people.

James Aldridge's early works - Signed with Their Honor (1942), The Sea Eagle (1944) and Of Many Men (1946) - are major achievements of advanced English war literature time. These works delighted with their novelty, the freshness of the writer's voice, and the clarity of political thought. These were perhaps the first messengers in England from the battlefields, conveying the truth about the suffering of millions and the determination of peoples to defend their independence and freedom.

James Aldridge's first novel, A Matter of Honor, draws a bright picture the people's liberation movement in Greece, starting from the invasion of the Italo-fascist invaders in October 1940 until the capture of the country by the Nazis in April 1941. The Greek people, defending their freedom, are contrasted in the novel with the rotten fascist-metaxist elite in power. The writer shows how poorly armed Greek soldiers selflessly fought for their land and what an ominous, treacherous role the Metaxists and representatives of the English high command played.

Already from the first novel, marked with the stamp of undoubted talent, one can judge Aldridge’s democracy, his significant life experience, great observation, and persistent search for his own individual style of writing.

In Aldridge's early works, especially in the novel A Matter of Honor, one can hear echoes of Hemingway's intonation. However, this is the influence Hemingway had on Aldridge during his formative years. creative method, should not be overestimated. The young writer inevitably enters into a kind of ideological and artistic polemic with him. Aldridge rethinks the theme of courage in the face of death and takes a new approach to depicting the patriotism of a people fighting for their independence. His heroes experience the same bitterness as the heroes of Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, but they see more clearly the culprits of the senseless and tragic death people and they all make their way to the truth in one way or another, overcoming the mood of political indifference characteristic of many representatives of the English bourgeois intelligentsia.

Aldridge very soon discovers his independence as an artist, and this is greatly facilitated by the breadth of his views and the ever-increasing historical experience he gained from the liberation struggle of peoples. Aldridge's path in this sense is directly opposite to the path of Hemingway's various epigones, who blindly canonize their teacher's early style, his deliberately simplified, stylized tale, which Hemingway himself later largely abandoned.

The desire to depict noble human characters, which is one of the main features of Aldridge’s work, makes him similar to the best traditions of English and world art. classical literature.

Lyrical theme- the love of the Greek patriot Elena Stangu and the English pilot John Quayle, the awakening and development of this love, its tragic nature, due to the harsh conditions of the war, occupies a large place in the novel “A Matter of Honor”. The personal destinies of the heroes, inextricably linked with the national struggle against fascism, are, as it were, illuminated by its light. In Elena Stangu's family, John Quayle found true patriots Greece, people of advanced convictions who are persecuted by metaxists. Communication with this family and bitter military experience prompt the hero to think about many things and re-evaluate his views on life.

Quayle saw that “his views are not ugly” and that he was not alone. And Mann, and young Gorell, and many others are of the same mind as he. “The day will come when they will all unite,” is Quayle’s conclusion.

The novel “A Matter of Honor,” dedicated to the fate and quest of John Quayle, brings the writer closely to the theme of a people rising up to fight. This theme is developed in the novel “The Sea Eagle,” in which the clarity of political thought and the courage to expose the perpetrators of the tragedy of the Greek people are combined with high artistic merit.

The novel is preceded by an epigraph that gives the key to the author's intention and introduces the dynamically developing action, rich in passionate struggle.

“Nysus defended Megara,” the epigraph says, “when the Minotaur invaded the country. His half-brother planned to take Megara into his own hands as soon as Nisus defeated the Minotaur. Nisus penetrated into his plan and told Zeus about it. Zeus turned his half-brother into a fish, and gave Nisa the power to transform into a sea eagle at will, so that in this form he could pursue his half-brother and observe the actions of his enemies.”

The action of the novel “The Sea Eagle” takes place on the island of Crete at the moment when the last act of the drama that the Greek people were experiencing began: having occupied Greece, the Nazis occupied Crete, destroying the Australian, New Zealand and English troops that did not have time to leave the island.

These days, the wounded Australian Enges Burke is wandering in search of salvation. A skeptical person, he tries to remain an outside observer of the events unfolding before him. He meets the Greek patriot Nysa on his way; close acquaintance with him and participation in the joint struggle prompts Burke to think and doubt the correctness of his position of political indifference. Fate brings Nys together with another Australian, the simple-minded giant Stone, a man of unbending will, self-control and humor; Accepted as a brother by the kind-hearted Littosian fishermen, Stone becomes close to them.

The image of the freedom-loving Greek Nisa - the “sea eagle” - a big man mental strength and nobility, who knows how to be a devoted friend and a passionate, irreconcilable fighter, helps to understand how deep the roots of the people's liberation movement are. This is one of best images folk hero in the literature of the Second World War.

James Aldridge reveals himself in this novel as a master of a tense, excitingly developing plot. He knows how to convey the drama of life, show the clash of social forces, the deep antagonism between the people and their enemies. The novel shows that the reactionary goals and plans of the metaxist clique aspiring to power found sympathy and support in well-known English circles.

Showing how people infected with ironic skepticism overcome it and join the ranks of the fighters against fascism, Aldridge does not separate this theme from the depiction of the nobility and strength of ordinary people, like Nis or the giant Sarandaki, boldly walking towards danger. The lyrical subtext is especially noticeable in the masterful dialogues, which eloquently testify to the deep emotional experiences of the heroes of “The Sea Eagle”.

The book “About Many People” consists of separate chapters-short stories, essays written at different times, but connected by unity ideological plan and the image of the main character. In vivid fragments, she gives a brief chronicle of the emergence of the Second World War, outlining its dramatic course and conclusion.

The book is like an overview of the most important theaters of war. Events are presented through the perception of the main character, the keen-eyed journalist Wolf, a Scotsman by birth. Wolf visited Spain during the war of the Spanish people against the fascist invaders and is full of sympathies for anti-fascists. The book contains sketches of the silhouettes of many people whom he happened to see. He writes about his meetings on the mountain roads of Norway, where he comprehended the quiet courage of the Norwegian people, writes about the people he encountered deep in the rear, in America. He talks about close friends and literary snobs who are deeply alien to him, whom he mentally calls “venal creatures.” In Italy, Wolf saw such folk heroes as the Italian anti-fascist Fabiano, who was brought to justice by representatives of the Anglo-American command for punishing fascist murderers who mocked the Italian people. Wolf characterizes the persecution to which Fabiano was subjected as a typical manifestation of a certain policy of promoting revanchism. Wolf visited the USSR, where the people gave everything for victory, and met with persistent people who defended Stalingrad.

Figure of Wolf, a man, truth seeker, plays a fundamental role in the book important role. It gives the author the opportunity not only to cement together disparate fragments, but also to show the aspirations of one of the typical representatives of the English democratic intelligentsia.

The genre of the book “About Many People” is peculiar: it is more like links of short stories, closely related to each other, than a complete novel. Aldridge has established himself here as a brilliant storyteller, who knows the secret of the dynamic development of action, clearly outlines his images, skillfully constructs dialogue, always with a deep undercurrent of thought.

The book “About Many People” is one of the writer’s approaches to a large epic canvas - the novel “The Diplomat”.

The play Forty-Ninth State, written in 1946, can also to a certain extent be considered as a harbinger of the novel The Diplomat. And not only because Aldridge turned to pressing international problems, which in itself is indicative of his creative development, but also because in this work an important side of the writer’s talent was fully revealed - the ability to create satirical images.

The events depicted in the play take place “80 years after our time,” but it bears the stamp of our days.

The novel “The Diplomat” (1949), on which James Aldridge worked for four years and into which, according to him, he poured his all, is one of the most significant phenomena of English literature of the post-war period. Despite the attacks of reactionary criticism, this novel found its way to a wide range of readers and was a well-deserved success.

The novel takes place in the winter of 1945/46, first in the Soviet Union, then in Iran and in England. The acute ups and downs of the struggle between the two main characters - Lord Essex, who arrived in the Soviet Union on a “special” diplomatic mission, and his assistant, geologist, Scotsman McGregor, who gradually discovers the true goals of his patron and courageously opposes him - express inner essence central conflict novel. The essence of the conflict is emphasized by the very composition of the novel, which is divided into two books: the first is called Lord “Essex”, the second is “McGregor”. In the first book close-up the figure of Lord Essex is given, trying to play a dominant role in everything and showing his diplomatic skill; in the second part, Lord Essex gives way to MacGregor.

Image of Lord Essex - large creative achievement Aldridge. This character embodies the typical features of bourgeois politicians who consider themselves the arbiters of the nation's destinies. This image, which has its predecessors in the gallery of portraits of “polyps” and “snobs” created by Dickens and Thackeray, is snatched from modern life and is shown in a new way by an artist who stands at the height of an advanced worldview.

It is just as natural for Essex to weave dirty intrigues, cynically to recruit hired agents from among the most criminal elements, as it is unnatural for the integral and honest McGregor.

The image of the geologist McGregor, a thoughtful, straightforward, honest, internally independent person, represents the democratic circles of the English intelligentsia in the novel.

Aldridge portrays this character in development, showing how McGregor overcomes his weaknesses and shortcomings, his narrowness. Artistic power and the persuasiveness of the novel “The Diplomat” lies, in particular, in the fact that the image of an advanced contemporary, a representative of the English democratic intelligentsia, is not depicted straightforwardly, but in his complex and painful searches, in overcoming many illusions, in the process of accumulating new observations and generalizations that lead to sudden changes in the hero’s consciousness and actions.

In the competition with Lord Essex, MacGregor wins politically and morally. Subtly using the weapon of irony, Aldridge debunks Lord Essex. The further the action of the novel develops, the clearer the inconsistency becomes of those ideas that Essex defends, who feeds blind hatred of the people, the forces historical progress, to the world of socialism. Readers are convinced of how pitiful his personal goals are, his worries about his career, how deceptive his “greatness” is and what an essentially small man he appears in comparison with McGregor.

Having taken the path of struggle, McGregor will be faithful to his social calling - this is the logic of the development of this integral character. “Only now,” he admits, “the real battle has begun for me, and I see that I cannot leave the field.” McGregor can no longer give up the fight. “It even seems to me that I have only just begun to live, and I know that my time and my labors were not in vain.”

The novelist depicts social events in the life of English society in the light of great historical perspectives. He clearly sees the features of the new in the destinies of the peoples of the Middle East, he knows that the victory of the democratic forces is inevitable, although the reaction may temporarily triumph. The system of images of his novel serves to reveal the opposition of the two worlds. Full of tension and drama, the novel “The Diplomat” is imbued with a sense of historical optimism and faith in the strength of the people.

The writer came so close to the problems today, to the chronicle of contemporary events, that he was in danger of slipping into the path of illustrating and cursory sketches. But the artist happily avoided this. Unfolding before readers a motley string of events international importance, the novelist created capacious, plastic images against their background, revealed the complex and contradictory play of social interests, showed the connection and collision of various human destinies as an expression of social antagonisms, as a manifestation of the contradictions between the passing world and the world being born in the struggle.

A special success of Aldridge, a satirist, is the image of Essex precisely because it is not given in isolation, but is included in a larger perspective, and this allowed the writer to convincingly show how hopeless the cause that Essex defends is, how tragicomic his attempts to make history are. The vital truth of this image lies in the deep and consistent debunking of the philosophy of a sophisticated diplomat who plays a tragic role in the life of nations.

Using everything positive that he gained in early period of his work, the author deeply solves the problem of the positive hero of our time. In the rapprochement with the people and their liberation struggle, best sides character of John Quayle, Enges Burke, Stone, Wolf - goodies Aldridge's early works. All the writer’s previous artistic discoveries were found in the novel “The Diplomat” further development, acquired a new quality. Compared with early things The tone and style of the novel “The Diplomat” takes on a different character. Aldridge also appears in it as a deeper and more mature realist artist, boldly invading the world of political passions, elucidating the subtle connection between the hero’s personal feelings and actions and social situation, and as a militant satirist. The novel "The Diplomat" - important milestone on creative path talented artist. And at the same time, it testifies to the victory of innovative trends, marking the emergence of a new stage in the development of advanced English literature of our days.

“It’s been a long time since I read such a good novel that gives such topical political lesson“like this book,” Harry Pollitt wrote about the novel “The Diplomat.” “She can make a great contribution to the struggle for peace and national independence.”1

In June 1953 World Council Mira awarded James Aldridge a gold medal for his novel The Diplomat. This testifies to the recognition by the world community of the great merits of this outstanding artist and peace fighter.

Aldridge dedicates the novel The Hunter (1950), which followed The Diplomat, to working people who preserved the nobility and purity of their souls in the harsh conditions of their existence. Aldridge shows interest in the spiritual world and the fate of such people from the very first steps of his life. literary activity. In this book, he contrasts his understanding of man with the mockery of him that is characteristic of modernist literature.

Although The Hunter does not have the breadth of social horizons of The Diplomat, the author in this novel also touches on the troubling social problems facing his heroes - Canadian hunters and farmers. Aldridge cares deeply about human destinies.

The novel reveals the tragedy of Indian Bob, a persecuted, lonely, withdrawn and proud man. He treats Roy with love and respect, who sacrifices his interests for his sake, and despises his oppressors. Aldridge's democratic views and humanism are also evident in his historically accurate depiction of Indian tribes doomed to a slow death by capitalism. The author shows the unity of white and colored peoples in their struggle for their vital interests. In the friendship of Roy McNair and Indian Bob, in their growing mutual understanding, the best sides of their nature are revealed - integrity of character, responsiveness and humanity, manifested in a restrained form, only emphasizing the strength of their emotions.

The novel's descriptions of the harsh nature among which Aldridge's heroes live, fight and win are beautiful. The writer, as it were, returns again to the mood of the novel “The Sea Eagle” and writes a book imbued with lyricism and philosophical reflection about the fate of people who are close to nature and feel their inextricable connection with it, waging a fierce struggle not to die and not become brutalized in vast forest desert.

“The Hunter is a beautifully constructed novel,” wrote the Daily Worker, “reflecting hope, struggle and man’s victory over despair; this aspect of the book is very important in this moment. This novel, of course, does not have the scope and scale of “The Diplomat,” but thanks to the author’s skill and determination, “The Hunter” is immeasurably higher than most books appearing today."

Aldridge combines truthful and meaningful coverage of significant social problems raised by reality with the art of creating images that express the characteristic features of this reality.

The protagonists of Aldridge's works telling about the Second World War are humble heroes, born of the trials of a just war, brought forward by a fierce struggle from the most native depths. The writer emphasizes their humanity, sense of camaraderie, severity and mercilessness towards the enemy. Their inherent shortcomings and weaknesses do not obscure from him their spiritual beauty, their civic feelings awakening in the struggle. Following the best traditions of English literature, and above all the traditions of Byron and Shelley, Aldridge, along with the images of his compatriots, paints images of participants in the liberation movement of other countries - Greek, Italian patriots, courageous fighters against Hitlerism, full of hatred for the invaders.

The problems of the post-war world and significant events in the life of the English people also deeply concern Aldridge, who takes an active part in the struggle for peace. In one of his articles entitled “This is Patriotism,” he wrote: “Before my eyes lay the nature of England, its beautiful cities and villages, in all its charm. And I suddenly thought: in case of war, these densely populated cities and villages located close to each other, our islands, are a milking target for atomic bombings. One could only imagine how little would be left after a few atomic explosions from all this beauty and human comfort - and any of these charming landscapes suddenly acquired a gloomy, tragic coloring, as if reminding that only in the struggle to maintain peace on our land can we find true patriotism, that people who deliberately put their peoples and their country at risk must be branded as traitors... The world will win because patriotism wins, the sense of humanity wins. By loving our own country, we learn to love all other countries and want peace for all.”

The writer covers specifically national problems and general, international problems - in close connection, shows the revolutionary development of reality; This is one of the essential features of the creative work of the innovative artist. Aldridge exposes the social contradictions of bourgeois society, revealing potential forces people making history, showing the justice and inevitability of the victory of advanced, democratic trends in modern life.

Aldridge's works are usually based on poignant dramatic situations, they are always full of action, revealing the interrelationships of reality, intense social conflicts, the struggle of opposing tendencies social development, psychological structure images, fundamental shifts in the consciousness of the heroes.

Aldridge's work has undergone significant artistic evolution from his first front-line sketches and novels to his latest works.

The ideological and artistic quest of Aldridge the realist is reflected in his meaningful and interesting statements on the development of advanced literature and aesthetics.

In his speech at a ceremonial meeting in Moscow dedicated to the centenary of the death of V.V. Gogol, James Aldridge highly appreciated the power of the great writer’s striking satire and, at the same time, clearly expressed his ideological and aesthetic views, clearly defining the artist’s place in the struggle for happiness and freedom of peoples.

Aldridge highly values ​​the life-giving significance of the realistic traditions of both national and world literature. At one of the meetings with Soviet readers, Aldridge spoke about the enormous contribution of Leo Tolstoy to the development of artistic thought of mankind, about the power of his genius and the unfading power of his realism.

James Aldridge sees all the deceit and madness of the rotten old world and all the greatness of the victories of the new world, where free people are captured by the enthusiasm of creative work.

Aldridge's books, translated into Russian and published in large editions, enjoy the well-deserved love of the reader, attracting them with their great ideological and artistic merits, the exciting significance of the problems raised in them and the vital brightness of the images and characters depicted in them. The works of the extraordinary realist artist have lasting aesthetic value and testify to the significant victories of advanced English literature, reflecting the needs and aspirations of the broad masses, their desire for peace and independence.