The Late Bourgeois World

The Late Bourgeois World is a 1966 novella by Nadine Gordimer. The novel follows an egocentric White South African woman, as she negotiates a failing marriage, "half-hearted' love affairs and political intrigue.[1] The novel was banned by the Censorship board in South Africa.[2]

The Late Bourgeois World

1st edition cover
Author	Nadine Gordimer
Country	South Africa
Language	English
Subject	apartheid
Genre	novella
Set in	South Africa, June 1965
Publisher	Victor Gollancz Littlehampton Book Services Ltd Viking
Publication date	1966
Media type	Print: hardback
Pages	120
ISBN	9780670419647
OCLC	229415208
Dewey Decimal	823.914
LC Class	PZ4 .G66 .3
Preceded by	Occasion for Loving
Followed by	A Guest of Honour

First US edition (publ. Viking Press)

Critical reception

The New York Times described the novel as the most "overtly political" of Gordimer's novels comparing it to Cry, The Beloved Country in its potential for shocking those outside of South Africa into acting about apartheid in South Africa.[1] Kirkus reviews gave it a strong and positive reception, focusing on the engaging style, saying the novel "manages to register a good many symptomatic ideas and subtle feelings which lose nothing in transition to the page; they remain instantaneous and sharp."[3]

References

1. Mitchell, Adrian (1966-09-11). "The Late Bourgeois World". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
2. Barrett, Susan (2004-06-15). ""What I say will not be understood": Intertextuality as a subversive force in Nadine Gordimer's Burger's Daughter". Revue électronique d'études sur le monde anglophone. 2 (1). doi:10.4000/erea.491. ISSN 1638-1718.
3. THE LATE BOURGEOIS WORLD by Nadine Gordimer. Kirkus. June 27, 1966.

Further reading

• DeVault, Marjorie L. (January 1990). "Novel Readings: The Social Organization of Interpretation". American Journal of Sociology. 95 (4): 887–921. doi:10.1086/229380. JSTOR 2780645.