- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (25 Oct 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0586090053
- ISBN-13: 978-0586090053
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 12.9 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 89,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Working all day at a lathe leaves Arthur Seaton with energy to spare in the evenings. A hard-drinking, hard-fighting young rebel of a man, he knows what he wants and he's sharp enough to get it. And before long, his carryings-on with a couple of married women is local gossip. But then one evening he meets a young girl in a pub, and Arthur's life begins to look less simple. Allan Sillitoe's classic novel of the 1950's is a story of timeless significance. The film of the novel, starring Albert Finney, transformed British cinema and was much imitated. "That rarest of all finds: a genuine no-punches-pulled, unromanticised working class novel. Mr Sillitoe is a born writer, who knows his milieu and describes it with vivid, loving precision." - "Daily Telegraph". "His writing has real experience in it and an instinctive accuracy that never loses its touch. His book has a glow about it as though he had plugged it into some basic source of the working-class spirit." - "Guardian". "Miles nearer the real thing than D.H.Lawrence's mystic, brooding working-men ever came." - "Sunday Express". "Very outspoken and vivid." - "Sunday Times". "A refreshing originality." - "Times Literary Supplement".
From the Back Cover
Working all day at a lathe leaves Arthur Seaton with energy to spare in the evenings. A hard-drinking, hard-fighting young rebel of a man, he knows what he wants and he's sharp enough to get it. And before long, his carryings-on with a couple of married women is local gossip. But then one evening he meets a young girl in a pub, and Arthur's life begins to look less simple.
Allan Sillitoe's classic novel of the 1950's is a story of timeless significance. The film of the novel, starring Albert Finney, transformed British cinema and was much imitated.
"That rarest of all finds: a genuine no-punches-pulled, unromanticised working class novel. Mr Sillitoe is a born writer, who knows his milieu and describes it with vivid, loving precision."
DAILY TELEGRAPH
"His writing has real experience in it and an instinctive accuracy that never loses its touch. His book has a glow about it as though he had plugged it into some basic source of the working-class spirit."
GUARDIAN
"Miles nearer the real thing than D.H.Lawrence's mystic, brooding working-men ever came."
SUNDAY EXPRESS
"Very outspoken and vivid."
SUNDAY TIMES
"A refreshing originality."
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Set in 1950's Britain, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning portrays the working class life of Arthur Seaton, a 21 year old, Nottingham factory worker . The reader should have an instant dislike to Arthur, he's a womaniser, lazy, and a liar. But like many of the "Angry Young Men" of the time, Arthur has a certain charm about him which makes it very easy for you to forgive his hedonistic lifestyle, even though it is clear to see the negative effects it has on everyone around him. Sillitoe spits the book into two: Saturday night, when the reader experiences Arthur's drinking, adultery and fighting, and Sunday morning, as the action of Saturday night catches up to Arthur. Sillitoe embodies in his lead protagonist, the serious effects that the Second World War had on a generation, giving an actuate portrayal of the mood of the young in post war Britain. Selfish, superficial and mercenary on the surface, Sillitoe skilfully adds extra dimensions to the character of Arthur through the quality of his writing, Arthur can be both a bastard and a philosopher at the same time. All in all, this is a interesting read into what life was like for a working class youth scared by the Second World War, although on the surface it's a brilliant fable about what can happen if you experience the excesses of life too much .
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When Alan Sillitoe's hard-hitting chunk of working-class life in Post-War Nottingham opens with its antihero Albert Seaton reeling drunk in the local pub the scene is set for the rest of the novel: a saga of fists, fags and philandering. Young Seaton - truculent, selfish and immoral - works as a lathe operator in a local factory during the day and at nights is enjoying the favours of a colleague's wife while her husband is on the late shift. In a life empty of purpose other than easy gratification he continues to play around with married women, fake illness during National Service, drink himself stupid with his hard-earned money and to go fishing when he wants to decompress. It is a tale of a man without vision because there is no vision available other than that dictated by society - rigid, conservative and conventional - which has no appeal to him.
With its ribbons of sooty terraces and zinc baths Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is grimly realistic if somewhat anachronistic. Interesting as English social history it has that distinctly fifties feel when the suppressed anger and resentment against the continuation of inflexible class divisions after the War felt by working-class communities with their backs to the wall was beginning to be expressed in literature, theatre and film.
With its ribbons of sooty terraces and zinc baths Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is grimly realistic if somewhat anachronistic. Interesting as English social history it has that distinctly fifties feel when the suppressed anger and resentment against the continuation of inflexible class divisions after the War felt by working-class communities with their backs to the wall was beginning to be expressed in literature, theatre and film.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Pity poor Arthur Seaton...slaving over a hot lathe at Raleigh Cycles in Nottingham all day in the late 1950's. Age 21 and full of raging energy he is a selfish, hedonistic archetype that some would have us believe did not come into being until the 1980's.
Alan Sillitoe has captured the old industrial Nottingham of the time and, within that context, the Arthur Seaton's are perfectly placed to give us a meaningful glimpse of 'what it was like' to grow up in the relative post-war poverty in that England. That Arthur is a rogue, albeit slightly loveable, highlights the division between spiviness and honesty - hard graft being offset by binges.
As a social document, 'Saturday Night & Sunday Morning'is rich in detail and this makes for a very enjoyable read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Non delivery
This is the worst service i have ever had.I would not buy another book from Amazon
Published on 1 Mar 2010 by C., Ewart
gritty real to life
Set in Nottingham, focusing on the life of a young jack the lad, Arthur, as he goes about his daily life, work, drinking and womanising. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2002 by Denise Rollason
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