A Domestic Animal

"Few English novelists have written with more might and assurance."

-The Spectator

"[King's] corpus documents the evolution of norms governing the literary depiction of homosexuality . . . What makes King's constrained fictions compelling is that his discretion is not absolute. He is almost a quintessential English novelist of manners . . . [But] he nursed an interest in the perverse; murder, cannibalism, incest, and other forbidden zones of sexuality . . . [In] A Domestic Animal . . . we find the coupling of delicacy and brutality, reticence and release, that makes King one of modern British literature's great anatomists of repression . . . A Domestic Animal is a compact, intricately patterned story of unrequited erotic obsession, focused on the relationship between a closeted English novelist and a beautiful Italian philosopher . . . Among the novel's daring ideas is its suggestion that closetedness and English taciturnity are part of a common condition, each an art of concealment that simultaneously throttles vitality and encourages the redirection of energy into work and achievement."

-Charlie Tyson, Harper's Magazine

"A delicate and truly touching story ... horribly true to life."

-Robert Garioch, The Listener

"King is a writer's writer, his voice is utterly convincing."

-Beryl Bainbridge

"Francis King is a name not much heard these days, but before his death 15 years ago he was a prominent figure in the literary world . . . But good things never die, and, now, his 1970 novel A Domestic Animal is reissued by the redoubtable McNally Editions . . . The forward momentum of the story requires that this 'foolish old queen who has lost his head over a handsome and normal Italian' must confront his passion with Antonio - and this drives the story to developments both surprising and inevitable."

-John Self, The Critic Magazine

"One of the finest and most remarkable of English novelists of our time."

-The Scotsman

"He deserves the widest possible readership."

-Melvyn Bragg, Punch

"No one writes better prose than Francis King."

-Ruth Rendell

"Witty, poignant, socially and internationally telling, it traps the tragi-comic essence of love that not merely isn't but can't be reciprocated."

-Brigid Brophy

"Wryly tender and painful . . . He is writing about love in all its aspects of greed, devotion, happiness and loss."

-Janice Elliott, Sunday Telegraph

"The author investigates his chosen examples of emotional blight with sympathy, precision, and immense skill."

-The Evening Standard

"His writing is like fine china ... This book's strength is its dark stab of feeling."

-Philip Norman, The Sunday Times

"[Francis King's] writing is always accomplished and elegant."

-A. S. Byatt

"A most accomplished writer who commands both deftness and feeling."

-Christopher Wordsworth, The Guardian

"Francis King commands a noteworthy talent; he is one of a number of contemporary British novelists who deserve the best attention here."

-The New York Herald Tribune Book Review

"Master of a subtle, melancholy style, rich and understated."

-Roxanna Robinson, The New York Times Book Review