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Craven House
 
 
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Craven House (Paperback)

by Patrick Hamilton (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.95
Price: £7.49 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Craven House + Through a Glass Darkly: The Life of Patrick Hamilton + The Gorse Trilogy: "The West Pier", "Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse", "Unknown Assailant"
Price For All Three: £23.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 264 pages
  • Publisher: Black Spring (10 Jul 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0948238402
  • ISBN-13: 978-0948238406
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 86,722 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > H > Hamilton, Patrick

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Product Description

Product Description
Patrick Hamilton is back in fashio after a period of neglect. This volume is a light-hearted satire on the English boarding house, handled with a youthful brio very different from Hamilton's later work. But the author's eye is as sharp as ever, the characters acutely drawn and their interplay is managed to great comic effect. Anthony Powell described the book as ""Dickens with a touch of E.F. Benson"". Published in conjuction with the biography of Hamilton, Nigel Jones's Through a Glass Darkly.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Craven House
57% buy the item featured on this page:
Craven House 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£7.49
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16% buy
The Slaves of Solitude 5.0 out of 5 stars (8)
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The Gorse Trilogy: "The West Pier", "Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse", "Unknown Assailant"
9% buy
The Gorse Trilogy: "The West Pier", "Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse", "Unknown Assailant" 4.5 out of 5 stars (4)
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Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (Vintage Classics)
9% buy
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Charming, tender, often funny, and hard to put down - a gem. , 1 Aug 2008
I loved this novel which shows boarding house life 1910-1920s and a period of generational transition with the world of Edwardian gentlefolk giving way to the bright young things of the 1920s. It stands out amongst Hamilton's work for its optimism and charm. Although there are glimpses of a darker world behind the suburban streets in which the boarding house, Craven House, is situated, Hamilton here steers away from a bleak and despairing portrayal of London that some of his later works show. The characters who live in his boarding house are vibrantly drawn and, although the romantic storyline gains some prominence as the novel progresses, it is quite clear at the end that it is the boarding house itself and a vanishing way of life that has been the true protagonist.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Politeness to laugh at, 7 April 2009
By J. Day (Maine, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Craven House is one of the more interesting books I've read in the past year or so. Don't let the seemingly bland context of the story fool you and deprive you of this absurdly funny and engaging adventure into the lives of the early-1900s British elite. When I first picked up the book I was confused at how bland it seemed it was going to be, but Hamilton takes the content with a subtlety of humour that I've never seen before. You can tell that he's mocking the prim, proper, and agonizingly pretentious nature of this class of people. Etiquette and awkward conversation become comic social commentary as the characters make complete and utter fools of themselves as they desperately try to live up to their ideas of society's expectations. Underlying this all is a unbelievably charming love story that you desperately want to come into fruition and suffer with the two involved when problems arise.
Hamilton's writing style is something to be admired in of itself. It is elegant and ornate, but twisted into this is a second form, irregularly structured with unique vocabulary and syntax that contrasts with the more classical structure to add to the air of awkward comedy that pervades the entirety of the book. His characters pop out as strikingly real as he develops for each a distinct way of speaking and thinking. Like the book itself, the characters are one way on the outside; uniform, mild-mannered, and perfect gentlemen/women, but on the inside they each have a uniqueness that comes out to play from time to time. Toward the end of the novel, these sorts of Jungian Shadows start breaking through the walls of their cages of society imposed suppression, and the reader gets to have a long series of chuckles at the expense of their collective psychological degeneration.
Above all, this book is an engaging read if you like the subtle humour of the author and you can appreciate the mastery with which he creates painfully awkward situations that you can't help but cringe at whilst you're laughing at the absurdity of the character's daily lives. It's a brilliant book, even to a sci-fi wonk like myself. Give it a read!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Craven House - A Book You Can Live In, 13 Feb 2009
By C. Morgan (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Craven House by Patrick Hamilton is a truly engaging read. Hamilton's style and descriptions might remind readers of some of the masterpieces of Victorian fiction, those books which you can become so immersed in that you feel as though you are a part of their worlds. This novel is an intricate tapestry of intermingled lives, all centring on the ever-changing, yet paradoxically ever-constant boarding house in the work's name. The boarding house, in a sense, is the main character, as it observes the many changes in the lives of those who stay in it. Craven House sees youth, death, burgeoning friendships, developing love, new arrivals, the departure of old friends, friendly squabbles, and family quarrels. When a reader picks up Craven House, he or she is thrust into times of the past when bobbed hair is one of those "modern airs". The reader experiences the anguish of Elsie's unrequited love, the fervor of Master Wildman when pursuing prospects of love and playwriting, and the audacity of Audrey speaking back to her employer. Once involved in this depiction, which gradually builds, crescendo-like, to a tense climax, readers may not want to leave. At the very least, you'll want to read it again.
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