Margaret drabble the dark flood rises discussion

novel by Margaret Drabble

The Dark Flood Rises is the 19th novel of Margaret Drabble, and was first published in

Theme

The title of the book is a quotation from a poem, The Ship of Death, by D.

H. Lawrence about mortality: “Piecemeal the body dies, and the timid soul/has her footing washed away, as the dark flood rises.” The main theme is growing old and dying.

Margaret drabble the dark flood rises discussion questions

It is told from multiple viewpoints, all of people linked in some way to Francesca (Fran) Stubbs, an elderly woman who does occasional work for a charity on aspects of living accommodation for the old. There is no strong plot: rather the book conveys different experiences of, and attitudes to, the twilight years of life, with the past histories of the main characters' lives being gradually revealed.

In the background are two major contemporary concerns - climate change and the refugee crisis of the years during which it was written, to which there are frequent references: the flood in th