- Unknown Binding
- Publisher: Eyre & Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd; First Edition, Fifth Impression edition (1957)
- ASIN: B004EK5NLI
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fantastic portrait of a time, of a class-system, and of a character. I enjoyed it tremendously. It's examination of class and power (sexual, monetary, etc) is fascinating. Braine isn't the most fantastic stylist ever, but that's not really the point. This is a great read that shines a very perceptive light on the life of an ambitious, cad-ish man in the 50s, and the class system that surrounds him and represses/opresses/supresses him, or tries to. It has a tragic, heartbreaking end, too. I really recommend this.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I saw the film Room At The Top many years ago and recently read the book for the first time. I found it an extraordinarily good reading experience set in 1940s post war England. Joe Lampton moves from a small Yorkshire town to a larger east Midlands town to broaden his horizons and improve his lot. The author captures the nuances of the class system and the politics of local government interwoven with the conflict of his bitter sweet love affairs. I found every single page a delight of writing craftsmanship, the book is a real tour de force of its genre.
Thoroughly recommended.
Thoroughly recommended.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First let me say that this book is worth every minute spent reading it. It's a short novel written in an easy to read style and throws you right into the plot from page one - class and ambition.
I was born and brought up in a town much like Dufton, the depressed and depressing northern town that the anti-hero Joe Lampton is trying to escape from, so the novel strikes a cord straight away. Joe and his friend call the various town hall functionaries in Dufton 'zombies' - moving but not really alive. As the story develops you realize that for all Joe's desire to escape from Dufton to the middle-class valhalla of Warley (or its like) he has really only move geographically, but he still very much a product of his class and his birthplace.
Joe Lampton has three driving forces in his life: ambition, class consciousness and a liking of women. These all play an important part in the story and weave together to drive Joe up the social ladder but also towards heartbreak.
Much of the story revolves around his affair with Alice Aisgill, an older women who is an independent spirit - within the society of the time she acted with the independence of a man and wasn't afraid to make it clear that she wasn't anyone's chattel (though her freedom depended on the loveless marriage to a rich man). Joe is torn between Alice and Susan Brown. Susan is only 19. and the pampered virgin daughter of a rich and worldly-wise businessman. Joe falls for her at first sight (before he knows that association with her could help him up the greasy pole, or prevent it forever). Susan is rather childish and shallow, and the perfect catch for Joe's working class view of man and woman, but Alice is more than his equal.
Some of the glimpses of post-war Britain (e.g. rations and the central role of the town hall) are fascinating and included in the story in such a way as to be as natural as air. They are written by somebody for whom it was simply a part of life, rather than with the curiosity of a spectator looking back.
The copy I read (a Penguin orange cover) was printed in 1959 and the paper was going a bit brown. This added to the sense of looking into that world - the book was almost as old as when the story was set.
I was born and brought up in a town much like Dufton, the depressed and depressing northern town that the anti-hero Joe Lampton is trying to escape from, so the novel strikes a cord straight away. Joe and his friend call the various town hall functionaries in Dufton 'zombies' - moving but not really alive. As the story develops you realize that for all Joe's desire to escape from Dufton to the middle-class valhalla of Warley (or its like) he has really only move geographically, but he still very much a product of his class and his birthplace.
Joe Lampton has three driving forces in his life: ambition, class consciousness and a liking of women. These all play an important part in the story and weave together to drive Joe up the social ladder but also towards heartbreak.
Much of the story revolves around his affair with Alice Aisgill, an older women who is an independent spirit - within the society of the time she acted with the independence of a man and wasn't afraid to make it clear that she wasn't anyone's chattel (though her freedom depended on the loveless marriage to a rich man). Joe is torn between Alice and Susan Brown. Susan is only 19. and the pampered virgin daughter of a rich and worldly-wise businessman. Joe falls for her at first sight (before he knows that association with her could help him up the greasy pole, or prevent it forever). Susan is rather childish and shallow, and the perfect catch for Joe's working class view of man and woman, but Alice is more than his equal.
Some of the glimpses of post-war Britain (e.g. rations and the central role of the town hall) are fascinating and included in the story in such a way as to be as natural as air. They are written by somebody for whom it was simply a part of life, rather than with the curiosity of a spectator looking back.
The copy I read (a Penguin orange cover) was printed in 1959 and the paper was going a bit brown. This added to the sense of looking into that world - the book was almost as old as when the story was set.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Explores what it takes to achieve one's goals, and what this costs to...
I enjoyed Room at the Top and thought it was an interesting look at post-War Britain, it's class structure and the challenges faced by those who wish to climb the class-ladder. Read more
Published 2 months ago by aus_books
Essential Reading
I don't know what prompted to pick up a 50s novel but I'm so glad I did. The story of Joe Lampton working his way through the class system, and its women, is told with such... Read more
Published 21 months ago by P. C. Langman
This booked changed my life
This is the first proper book I read outside of school(1977) (Alistair Maclean had been my staple until then). Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mr. Neil Thorneycroft
Room At The top by John Braine
"Room At The Top" was a seminal book of the 1950s, fitting into the Angry Young Man theme running through parts of British literature at the time. Read more
Published on 15 Nov 2009 by Ms. Helen Dalton
Crucial 1950's novel
This 1957 bestseller captures the very significant shift from Post War austerity to late 1950's economic growth perfectly, neatly depicting the economic and social opportunities... Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2008 by M. Shankland
A social climber, our Joe
It's fifty years since A Room At The Top first appeared. Against a backdrop of post-war Britain, a period when people really did believe that a new future, a different kind of... Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2007 by Philip Spires
Time-locked Glimpse Of English Class Structure
Despite being post-war, Braine's story of Joe Lampton (an ambitious young man in a milieu that despised ambition) could well have been set in any time between 1900 and 1930. Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2003 by A. Reynolds
The original "angry young man".
John Braine's novel about Joe Lampton is a standout classic. His method of writing about what the main character is thinking, doing and reacting is superb! Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2003 by Valentine Senkus
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