The Fifteen Streets
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Product Description
Review
Helen Dunmore "The Times" (London) Catherine Cookson's novels are about hardship, the intractability of life and of individuals, the struggle first to survive and next to make sense of one's survival. Humour, toughness, resolution, and generosity are Cookson virtues, in a world which she often depicts as cold and violent. Her novels are weighted and driven by her own early experiences of illegitimacy and poverty. This is what gives them power. In the specialised world of women's popular fiction, Cookson has created her own territory.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
When John O'Brien fell in love with Mary Llewellyn he knew there was a gulf between them that nothing could bridge - the gulf of the "Fifteen Streets".
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book, and film (which I highly recommend Sean Bean- dribbled all the way through.) This book is the first of catherine cookson's I've read and wow what a page turner. It is so thought provoking and your insides ache to think what it must have been like to be these characters. It has heart ache and yet something so spell binding, you want to hate some of the characters but you just can't because you really want to know their every move. It has to be said i was so sad to finish this book. The story is unforgetable, and yes tale and old as time. Town mouse and country mouse. but yet the way it's written and the twists and turns make it serious and relevant to the world we live in today. I think for readers who are looking for a book to question their thoughts of others, and simply love a story which has every emotion felt.
Thankyou for reading! :)
Thankyou for reading! :)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Historical Romance!!!
28 Nov 2003
Format:Hardcover
This is the first book I've read of Catherine Cookson and what a great book I found. Cookson's writing flows efortlessly, letting you enjoy the story more. John a son to a poor family living in the fifteen streets falls in love with his sister's schoolteacher, a wealthy beautiful woman. John is torn between his love for her and knowing the huge gap between their classes. A wonderful story filled with love, sorrow, that has a great ending. A superbly written novel that everyone will enjoy.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Religion Wars
11 Dec 2009
Format:Hardcover
I have read a good twenty Cookson books at this point and all except one have warranted at least three stars till now. I had a hard time with this one. The subject matter did not really interest me as much as Cookson's usual choices. Besides being about a very poor, struggling family on Fifteen Streets, it focuses on the late 1800s/ early 1900s religious tensions between Catholics and Pentecostals.
It has the usual dramatic twists that Cookson is famed for, but in this case they were predictable. There is the "upstart" struggling to better himself, good sibling versus bad, and a woman attempting to saddle a poor fellow with a bairn that isn't his.
Unlike most Cookson stories, I never felt any rapport or kinship with any of the characters, However, in the end, one can read a bit of a moral in the story. Be careful what you wish for. It can often come true, but with strings attached.
It has the usual dramatic twists that Cookson is famed for, but in this case they were predictable. There is the "upstart" struggling to better himself, good sibling versus bad, and a woman attempting to saddle a poor fellow with a bairn that isn't his.
Unlike most Cookson stories, I never felt any rapport or kinship with any of the characters, However, in the end, one can read a bit of a moral in the story. Be careful what you wish for. It can often come true, but with strings attached.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
strong historical relationship drama
20 Dec 2002
Format:Hardcover
THE FIFTEEN STREETS are slums filled with abject poverty that usually leads to its residents giving up on the future as the hard work destroys the dreams and hopes for something better if not for themselves at least for their offsprings. A drunk sired John O'Brien, yet the lad once believed that hard work was the avenue out. However, his toil on the docks has left him with deep doubts and the realization that the odds are he will end up just like his dad.
Upon meets his younger sister's teacher Mary Llewellyn, John renews his belief he will make something of himself because now he has the impetus to become a better person. Mary comes from a higher class than John yet prefers working with the children of the FIFTEEN STREETS in the belief that education is the ticket out of destitution. As John and Mary fall in love, the pressure increases to end this forbidden relationship that binds two people from opposite sides of the tracks.
Although the class differences blocking a relationship seem antiquated, this reprint of a classic Catherine Cookson book stands the test of time due to the ageless themes that survival and intelligence is inadequate without love, passion, and hope. The descriptions of the FIFTEEN STREETS neighborhood are sadly realistically horrifying then and now yet brilliantly interwoven into a powerful plot. Fans will admire Mary and root for John to overcome the impossible, which is why the deceased Ms. Cookson remains a favorite.
Harriet Klausner
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