Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
25 used & new from £0.69
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Cold Spring Harbor (Vintage Classics)
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Cold Spring Harbor (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Richard Yates (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.79 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.20 (40%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 14? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
19 new from £3.08 6 used from £0.69
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 2 used & new from £32.99
Paperback 18 used & new from £3.76

Frequently Bought Together

Cold Spring Harbor (Vintage Classics) + The Easter Parade + Young Hearts Crying (Vintage Classics)
Price For All Three: £14.37

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Easter Parade

The Easter Parade

by Richard Yates
4.8 out of 5 stars (8)  £4.79
Young Hearts Crying (Vintage Classics)

Young Hearts Crying (Vintage Classics)

by Richard Yates
4.7 out of 5 stars (6)  £4.79
Disturbing the Peace (Vintage Classics)

Disturbing the Peace (Vintage Classics)

by Richard Yates
4.8 out of 5 stars (6)  £5.19
Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road

by Richard Yates
4.5 out of 5 stars (75)  £4.69
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (Vintage Classics)

Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (Vintage Classics)

by Richard Yates
4.2 out of 5 stars (4)  £4.79
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics (7 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099518538
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099518532
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10,394 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #6 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > Y > Yates, Richard

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review
`Yates's prose is as elegant and minimalist as ever... He simply tells the story - in... perfectly pitched language.'
-- www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com

Product Description
All the sorrows of Evan Shepard's loutish adolescence were redeemed at seventeen, in 1935, when he fell in love with automobiles...In the small suburban town of Cold Spring Harbor, Evan Shephard and his young bride Rachel yearn to escape the mistakes of their parents. But as they discover, families exert a hold as tight as fate, and every way out only ends up back home.

See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(3)
See all 2 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Cold Spring Harbor (Vintage Classics)
47% buy the item featured on this page:
Cold Spring Harbor (Vintage Classics) 4.5 out of 5 stars (6)
£4.79
The Easter Parade
19% buy
The Easter Parade 4.8 out of 5 stars (8)
£4.79
Revolutionary Road
14% buy
Revolutionary Road 4.5 out of 5 stars (75)
£4.69
Young Hearts Crying (Vintage Classics)
13% buy
Young Hearts Crying (Vintage Classics) 4.7 out of 5 stars (6)
£4.79
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Harsh Lessons in Life, 3 Sep 2003
This review is from: Cold Spring Harbor (Paperback)
Richard Yates was always interested in failures and outsiders, and in Cold Spring Harbor, originally released in 1986 and the last novel he would write, this is no different. The theme of the book is typical Yates - lonely lost characters struggling through life anyway they can, marriages that are falling apart, people who get drunk to numb whatever pain they’re feeling.
The story centres around two families, the Shepards and the Drakes, who meet up by chance when the Shepards car breaks down. What begins as a joyous union soon beings to turn sour, with sadness meeting each character perpetually. There is one mans feelings of being trapped by marriage and his child, a mentally unstable woman and her unrequited love, a teenage boys feelings of inadequacy – each of them dreams of escape and a better life, only to wake to reality every time.
The characters, as in all of Yates stories, are brought to life by the faultless dialogue, each scene brought to life by Yates sparse yet descriptive sentences. There are no excess words, no overindulgence, it’s kept sharp and clear and with the last few pages beautifully understated and totally breathtaking. Though it may not be as critically acclaimed a novel as his debut Revolutionary Road, this book should still not be ignored.
There is no happy ending to this story but that’s okay – life isn’t all about happy endings and anyway, a happy ending wouldn’t have fit here. Richard Yates was a man who suffered through two divorces (with his wives winning custody of the children on both occasions), TB, alcoholism and depression, finally ending with his premature death caused by smoking induced emphysema. For him, sadly, there was no happy ending either.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A nightmare... Convincing..... Extremely good read...., 25 Aug 2008
Yates is new to me and I had no idea what to expect ... what he delivers is so far from the usual Disney / Hollywood fair America endlessly churns out.

It is a deceptively simple story of two families struggling to get along, to do 'the right thing,' to be accepted and loved. But the veneer of polite society is shot through by deeper needs and fears.

As the narration switches between characters all appear to have legitimacy and reason, as well as some flaw which grows in their minds like a tumour, dominating their lives. The characters do not grow to overcome their limitations; they are not supported to confront the issues, which instead are covered up, ran away from or disowned.

In short, a nightmare! No matter how you wish things will turn out fine in the end, you know it ain't going to happen!

Nonetheless, the book is an extremely good read, if not exactly enjoyable! It is convincing in ways few horror stories are.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Cold Spring Harbor, 21 Feb 2009
By Leyla Sanai "leyla" (glasgow) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   


Cold Spring Harbor is a slip of a novel, and left me wanting more. It's a novel moody adolescents in their 'outsider' phase would relate to, being the tale of a young man, Evan Shepard, who has himself had troubled teenage years in which he indulged in petty crime and bullying. Evan is blessed with beautiful looks, however, so he's always been popular with the ladies. To the chagrin of his respectable retired army officer father Charles, Evan is loathe to settle down to any profession with much of a future. However, Charles and his delicate wife Grace hope that things will change when Evan meets and falls in love with a pleasant girl from New York, Rachel.

Yates includes some of his characteristic personalities. There's the needy, embarrassing, loosely garrulous mother figure, Gloria Drake, whose verbal diarrhoea and cringeable desire for elevated social status sets people's teeth on edge. There's the silent son packed off to private school - Rachel's brother Phil. And of course, a significant proportion of the women are alcoholics, drinking to keep their despair and loneliness at bay.

Yates's prose is as elegant and minimalist as ever. He never uses more words than are necessary, nor does he ever include flowery or obscure terms. He simply tells the story - in easily comprehensible but perfectly pitched language.

Reading this a couple of months after Sadie Jones's The Outcast won a Costa for best first novel, I'm struck by the differences between the two novels. They both ostensibly cover similar ground - confused, dangerously attractive young men who don't live up to their potential and who don't curb their sexual urges. Yet despite Jones's novel painting a vivid picture of a torn, magnetic adolescent, her prose is studded with sloppy and ordinary language compared with Yates's. It is the language of trashy pulp fiction, Dan Brown and Kate Mosse, bestsellers which use words a five year-old would use to convey action.

In contrast, although Yates uses ordinary words, he uses them in a way you feel couldn't be bettered. His novels may lack action, but it is his ability to perceive the drama in the mundane that is impressive. His books are the equivalent of the quality kitchen sink dramas of the '60s and '70s. It is a pity that Yates didn't receive all the accolades he deserved in life.

The only negative comment I have to make about Cold Spring Harbor is that I could have done with another 100 or so pages. I hadn't had enough of Evan by the closing pages. Selfish, irascible and loutish as he was, he illustrated perfectly the point that you don't have to like a character to love a novel.

****0
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great book from Yates
Yes Richard Yates did it again. I bet this marvelous novel won't disappoint you if you're satisfied with Revolutionary Road or any other his material. Read more
Published 1 month ago by David Greene

5.0 out of 5 stars A nightmare... Convincing..... Extremely good read....
Yates is new to me and I had no idea what to expect ... what he delivers is so far from the usual Disney / Hollywood fair America endlessly churns out. Read more
Published 10 months ago by stevieby

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, sad, magic
Richard Yates is a writer, whose writing always (at least in the four books of his I have read so far) has a special kind of magic. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Roland Freisitzer

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

Elemis Resurface and Renew Skin Care Gift Set of 4 Products
From soap to shavers, massagers to mascara, stock up on your daily essentials or truly pamper yourself.

›Discover Health & Beauty

  

More From Richard Yates

Revolutionary Road

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

Originally published in 1961 to great critical acclaim, Richard... Read more
£7.99 £4.69

 

Train Hard...Play Hard

Nike, Gola, Converse, and more
Gear up with up to 60% off athletic and outdoor shoes.

›Shop now

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4.5 out of 5 stars (75)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (464)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (165)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (81)£3.86

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates