The Realms of Gold

The Realms of Gold is a 1975 novel by British novelist Margaret Drabble. The novel explores the mid-life experiences of anthropologist Frances Wingate and her affair with Karel Schmidt.^[1]

Drabble describes the initial inspiration for the novel in an interview in The Paris Review:^[2]

I was trying to think of something really amusing and cheerful and I thought of the octopus I saw in the museum at Naples. I can't remember what I was doing in this maritime museum. I can't remember who took me. But suddenly there it was, a lot of imagery of nature: the natural world of species, the flora and fauna, the fact that Frances's father studied newts. It all just seemed to fit very nicely.

— ^[2]

The novel is primarily a reflection on Wingate's life, but critic Broyard, describes the novels best features are "Brilliant little essays" about life and life issues.^[1]

Reception of the novel was mixed. New York Times reviewer Anatole Broyard described the novel as "drenched with intelligence, that is not enough to make it work."^[1] Broyard compared Drabble's poor work to the poor subsequent novels by Edna O'Brien and Gail Godwin.^[1] Kirkus review was much more positive about the novel, calling it "a conspicuous pleasure to read--a cheerful reconciliation of the exactions of the past and the possibilities that lie just ahead."^[3]

• Higdon, David Leon (1 January 1984). Margaret Drabble's The Realms of Gold, 'its lines were the lines of memory'. Macmillan Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 152–168. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-04761-1_10. ISBN 9781349047635.
• LITTLE, JUDY (1 January 1981). "Margaret Drabble and the Romantic Imagination: The Realms of Gold". Prairie Schooner. 55 (1/2): 241–252. JSTOR 40630747.