Enemies of Promise

Enemies of Promise is a critical and autobiographical work written by Cyril Connolly and first published in 1938.

It comprises three parts, the first dedicated to Connolly's observations about literature and the literary world of his time, the second a list of adverse elements that affect the ability to be a good writer and the last an account of Connolly's early life. The overarching theme of the book is the search for understanding why Connolly, though he was widely recognised as a leading man of letters and a highly distinguished critic, failed to produce a major work of literature.

This part consists of an erudite discussion of literary styles, with Connolly posing the question of what the following ten years would bring in the world of literature and what sort of writing would last. He summarises the two main styles as follows:

His examples of exponents of the Mandarin style include Lytton Strachey, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, Aldous Huxley and James Joyce, the dominant literary character of the 1920s. Examples of vernacular or realist exponents include Ernest Hemingway, Somerset Maugham, Christopher Isherwood and George Orwell, the dominant force in the 1930s.

Connolly quotes a few lines of The Village by George Crabbe, poet and naturalist, which describe the weeds which choke the rye. He uses this as an analogy for the factors that can stifle a writer's creativity. The represents journalism, particularly when pursued out of economic necessity. Thistles represent politics, particularly relevant in the left-wing literary atmosphere of the 1930s. Poppies are used to cover all forms of escapism, and it is in this chapter that Connolly dwells on the tyranny of "promise" as the burden of expectation. Charlock is a representation of sex, with the most problematic aspects being, on the one hand, homosexuality and, on the other, the tares of domesticity. Finally, the Slimy Mallows represent success, the most insidious enemy of literature.

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