An Inspector Calls LitChart
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An Inspector Calls
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BACK
CKGR
GROUND
OUND INFO
AUTHOR BIO
Ghoulish Goole. Many interpretations of the text consider the Inspector’s ghostly name to be symbolic of the mystery that surrounds his character.
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OVERVIEW
VERVIEW
Full Name: J.B. Priestley
Date of Birth: September 13, 1894
Place of Birth: Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Date of Death: August 14, 1984
Brief Life Story: Priestley grew up in Manningham, England. His mother died when he was two years old and, at the age of sixteen, he left school to work as a junior clerk at a wool firm. He served and was injured in World War I and then went to study at Trinity College. Priestley hosted a popular radio show,
“Postscripts,” from the beginning of World War II until the show was cancelled in 1940 after members of the Conservative Party—including Margaret
Thatcher—complained about Priestley’s broadcasting his left-wing politics. He continued nevertheless to have a political presence in the UK: he and a group of friends founded the 1941 Committee, which advocated for a national wages policy and for railways, mines, and docks to come under public control; in 1942, he co-founded the Common Wealth Party, which sought to advance the causes of “Common Ownership,” “Vital Democracy” and “Morality in
Politics.” Priestley wrote novels, plays, and newspaper articles throughout his life, including An Inspector Calls in 1945. He was married three times.
KEY FACTS
Full Title: An Inspector Calls
Genre: Mystery drama
Setting: 1912; a comfortable home in Brumley, England
Climax: Gerald returns to the Birling home after Goole has left, to report that the Inspector wasn’t actually a real inspector, and to hypothesize that the whole thing was a hoax—that there was no single girl that all of the Birlings had offended, and no suicide that they precipitated.
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
When Written: 1945
Where Written: England
When Published: 1945
An Inspector Calls
BA
BACK
CKGR
GROUND
OUND INFO
AUTHOR BIO
Ghoulish Goole. Many interpretations of the text consider the Inspector’s ghostly name to be symbolic of the mystery that surrounds his character.
PL
PLO
OT O
OVERVIEW
VERVIEW
Full Name: J.B. Priestley
Date of Birth: September 13, 1894
Place of Birth: Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Date of Death: August 14, 1984
Brief Life Story: Priestley grew up in Manningham, England. His mother died when he was two years old and, at the age of sixteen, he left school to work as a junior clerk at a wool firm. He served and was injured in World War I and then went to study at Trinity College. Priestley hosted a popular radio show,
“Postscripts,” from the beginning of World War II until the show was cancelled in 1940 after members of the Conservative Party—including Margaret
Thatcher—complained about Priestley’s broadcasting his left-wing politics. He continued nevertheless to have a political presence in the UK: he and a group of friends founded the 1941 Committee, which advocated for a national wages policy and for railways, mines, and docks to come under public control; in 1942, he co-founded the Common Wealth Party, which sought to advance the causes of “Common Ownership,” “Vital Democracy” and “Morality in
Politics.” Priestley wrote novels, plays, and newspaper articles throughout his life, including An Inspector Calls in 1945. He was married three times.
KEY FACTS
Full Title: An Inspector Calls
Genre: Mystery drama
Setting: 1912; a comfortable home in Brumley, England
Climax: Gerald returns to the Birling home after Goole has left, to report that the Inspector wasn’t actually a real inspector, and to hypothesize that the whole thing was a hoax—that there was no single girl that all of the Birlings had offended, and no suicide that they precipitated.
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY CONTEXT
When Written: 1945
Where Written: England
When Published: 1945