SOURCE: Imhof, Rüdiger. “The Prose World of Aidan Higgins: Fiction, Fictionalized Autobiography, Travelogue.” In Anglia: Zeitschrift für Englische Philologie, pp. 59-90. Tübingen, Germany: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1996.

In the following essay, Imhof traces Higgins's literary development and asserts that his early short fiction should be considered his best work.

The trouble with Aidan Higgins is at least three-fold. Firstly, his best writing was done at the beginning of his literary career, with Felo de Se, later re-issued as Asylum & Other Stories, and Langrishe, Go Down. In Bornholm Night-Ferry, where the writer Fitz bears a close affinity to the writer Higgins and where in a self-reflexive, intertextual manner Higgins' books and writerly activities are alluded to and commented upon, Fitz, interestingly enough, admits to Elin: “You are even right about my Werke—the early stuff was the best. I had the excitement then ….”¹ The subsequent books gave...