Anita Brookner

Anita Brookner (born July 16, 1928, London, England—died March 10, 2016) was an English art historian and author who presented a bleak view of life in her fiction, much of which deals with the loneliness experienced by middle-aged women who meet romantically unsuitable men and feel a growing sense of alienation from society. Brookner was a master of character and of the telling of detail.

Brookner was the daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants whose last name was originally spelled Bruckner. She received a B.A. (1949) in history from Kings College London, and a Ph.D. (1953) from the Courtauld Institute of Art, where she later held the post of reader (1977–88). She also served for one year (1967–68) as the first woman Slade Professor of Art at the University of Cambridge. Brookner specialized in French art and wrote several books of criticism, notably The Genius of the Future: Studies in French Art Criticism (1971), Greuze: The Rise and Fall of an Eighteenth-Century Phenomenon (1972), and Jacques-Louis David (1980).

In the early 1980s Brookner began to concentrate on writing fiction. Her novels drew comparisons to those of Jane Austen in that they are witty comedies of manners limited in scope to the experiences of a small group of people. Unlike Austen, however, Brookner often presented a grimmer view of life. Her first novel, A Start in Life (U.S. title, The Debut), was published in 1981. It was followed by Providence (1982), Look at Me (1983), and Hotel du Lac (1984; TV adaptation 1986). The latter work was a surprise winner of the Booker Prize, beating J.G. Ballard’s heavily favoured Empire of the Sun. Brookner’s other novels included Latecomers (1988), chronicling the lives of two male German Jews orphaned during the Holocaust who make a life for themselves in England; Brief Lives (1990); Fraud (1992); Visitors (1997); Undue Influence (1999); the Booker-nominated The Next Big Thing (2002); The Rules of Engagement (2003); Leaving Home (2005); and Strangers (2009). Brookner was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1990.