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
7 new from £21.61

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Lanark (Canongate Classics)
 
See larger image
 

Lanark (Canongate Classics) (Hardcover)

by Alasdair Gray (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £35.00
Price: £33.25 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £1.75 (5%)
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.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, July 15? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
7 new from £21.61
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 9 used & new from £23.64
Paperback (New edition) 26 used & new from £2.06

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text, Historical Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions) by J Behn

Lanark (Canongate Classics) + Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text, Historical Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)
Price For Both: £39.20

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text, Historical Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)

Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text, Historical Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)

by J Behn
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £5.95
My Beautiful Laundrette: Screenplay (Faber Reel Classics)

My Beautiful Laundrette: Screenplay (Faber Reel Classics)

by Hanif Kureishi
£5.49
Old Men in Love

Old Men in Love

by Alasdair Gray
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £14.00
Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

by Samuel Beckett
3.7 out of 5 stars (22)  £4.99
Angels in America: Part One [Millennium Approaches] & Part Two [Perestroika]

Angels in America: Part One [Millennium Approaches] & Part Two [Perestroika]

by Tony Kushner
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £9.99
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Classics; Limited signed ed (1500) edition (30 April 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 184195120X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841951201
  • Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.4 x 8.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 344,429 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #13 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > G > Gray, Alasdair
    #14 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Gray, Alasdair
    #36 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Boyd, William

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Alasdair Gray's first novel Lanark (first published in 1981) immediately established him as one of the most important Scottish voices of his generation and this astounding work as one of the key British novels of the last century. Magnificent in its reach and unequalled in the adulation of its critical response, Lanark is a massive book.

Perversely we start our reading with Book 3--the hero of this and the last book in the quartet, the eponymous Lanark, lives in a bizarre and fantastical future in a grey, dreary city called Unthank. He doesn't remember how he got there nor who he really is. He hangs around a local cafe with some other young people whose values and mores he can't quite figure. All around people are disappearing. Then he contracts dragonhide... and disappears too. He wakes in an institute and is told the sad but instructional tale of Duncan Thaw (the boy he used to be, the boy, in a sense, Alasdair Gray used to be).

Duncan, unknowingly speaking of the epic of which he is the centre, who we meet as a child and watch grow into an artist , says "I want to write a modern Divine Comedy with illustrations in the style of William Blake." And it is Duncan's story that is the heart of Lanark--and what a poignant, heart-breaking tale it is. From a boy who can never accept or offer or understand love, who cannot connect, to an artist who cannot accept that he cannot have the final word--both in his own life and in his art--Duncan's tale is a beautifully crafted coming-of-age story.

Lanark is a work of huge imagination and wonderful range; it is about all of our selves, how we make them and make them up; it is about place and what that means for identity and it is about love--how we can learn to love our selves, or fail to, how we need to love, both ourselves and others, to create communities in which we can create art that will promote a continuing project of place in which we can love each other better. Lanark is peerless. --Mark Thwaite

Review
'An ambitious and marvellously inventive novel.' --Malcolm Bradbury

See all Product Description


Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Lanark (Canongate Classics)
51% buy the item featured on this page:
Lanark (Canongate Classics) 4.1 out of 5 stars (7)
£33.25
Lanark: A Life in Four Books (Canongate Classics)
40% buy
Lanark: A Life in Four Books (Canongate Classics) 4.3 out of 5 stars (3)
£6.99
How Late it Was, How Late
3% buy
How Late it Was, How Late 4.2 out of 5 stars (12)
£6.99
Old Men in Love
3% buy
Old Men in Love 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£14.00

 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant book, 16 May 2004
By A Customer
I was recommended LANARK by a friend and was absolutely bowled over by it - and completely ashamed that I'd never heard of Gray before now.

It's very difficult to describe what the book is about - it has two parallel stories, one of a young idealistic artist in Glasgow trying to develop his art in thankless surroundings; the other of a loner in Unthank, a version of Hell (or Glasgow) trying to save his city (Unthank - or Glasgow) from the depredations of industrial capitalism and the onslaught of big business.

The book is elegiac, wise, beautifully written, very clever, hilarious in points, self-parodying and full of wonderful satire. It is also full of engaging charaters, and has a great storyline. Impossible here to depict how the halves intertwine, or the sheer energy of Gray's fiction.

He took 25 years to write this book - it was worth it. One of the classics of the 20th century. Buy it, read it, give it to your friends!

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



 
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite book of all time., 24 Jan 2002
By A Customer
I first read this book in the late 1980's, and have kept coming back to it ever since. I've read it in its entirety three times now, and shall no doubt read it again. It is absolutely superb - engaging, challenging, bizarre, beautifully written. It lends the lie to the notion that experimental fiction has to be 'difficult'. Somehow Gray manages to take on just about every important philosophical theme without ever losing sight of the fact that it is the characters, with all their human frailties, that ultimately engage us.

For its sheer ambition and imagination, as well as distinctiveness of voice, this book deserves its place in the canon of great experimental literature - alongside Joyce, Woolf, Kafka, Beckett and the other greats.

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



 
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A superlative book, now superbly packaged., 2 Nov 2001
By A Customer
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the first publication of Alasdair Gray's "Lanark", Canongate have re-issued it in a lavishly-printed four-volume hardcover edition, complete with splendid reproductions of Gray murals and paintings on the covers of each volume. Given that Gray famously intended the component books of "Lanark" to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another, there's a case for saying that this edition is really the first to reflect the shape Gray wanted the book to have. With any Alasdair Gray book, the visuals are as much a part of the package as the words, and both deserve the best possible presentation so this edition of "Lanark" has a fair claim to being essential for anyone interested in Gray's writing. This edition also includes Gray's own wry account of the making and reception of "Lanark".
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 a trip through your own mind
i can't say that i completely understood it all, and at times i was bored, but when i was captivated it was astonishing. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Scooterboy

4.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious, quirky, funny and challenging. Quite an achievement!
I had heard Lanark described as a Glaswegian cult classic but I didn't quite know what to expect. There are two narrative threads. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Wynne Kelly

1.0 out of 5 stars the dustjacket of Thomas Mann's 'Magic Mountain' padded out with amateurish drivel
I haven't read this for 25 years, and over those 25 years I've repeatedly come across praise for this 'novel'; maybe I need to revisit it, maybe I missed something, but as memory... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Jm Leven

5.0 out of 5 stars A Twentieth Century Colossus
This is one of the great Scottish novels of the twentieth century. Why? Because of its breadth, scope and vision. Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2005 by Rosie

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]


   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

Shop The Body Shop

 

More From Alasdair Gray

Poor Things

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to hail Alasdair Gray as one of... Read more
£8.99 £6.99

 

Up to 50% off Dental Care

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 6000 Rechargeable Toothbrush - Pack of 2
Put a sparkle in your smile with up to 50% off selected Oral-B and Philips rechargeable toothbrushes.

Up to 50% off power toothbrushes

 

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
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer

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