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The Slaves of Solitude (Paperback)

by Patrick Hamilton (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Price For All Three: £19.19

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Product details

  • Paperback: 327 pages
  • Publisher: Constable (24 Aug 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1845294157
  • ISBN-13: 978-1845294151
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 22,556 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

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

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Product Description

Review

'Patrick Hamilton was a marvellous novelist who's grossly neglected... I'm continually amazed that there's a kind of roll call of OK names from the 1930s, sort of Auden, Isherwood, etc. But Hamilton is never on them and he's a much better writer than any of them... [he] was very much outside the tradition of an upper-class or middle-class writer of that time. He wrote novels about ordinary people. He wrote more sense about England and what was going on in England in the 1930s than anybody else I can think of, and his novels are true now. You can go into any pub and see it going on.' 'His finest work can easily stand comparison with the best of this more celebrated contempories George Orwell and Graham Greene.' Sunday Telegraph --Doris Lessing<br /><br />'His finest work can easily stand comparison with the best of this more celebrated contempories George Orwell and Graham Greene.' --Sunday Telegraph

'His finest work can easily stand comparison with the best of this more celebrated contempories George Orwell and Graham Greene.' --Sunday Telegraph


Literary Review

Hamilton's gift for comedy and his understanding of tragedy...
create a glorious study of human cruelty and great human warmth.
See all Product Description
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb wartime classic, 14 April 2006
Bombed out of her London flat, Miss Roach, thirty-nine and alone, takes up residence at the Rosamund Tea Rooms at Thames Lockdon. Here we encounter an array of lost, rootless, lonely people, the flotsam and jetsam of the War - the slaves of solitude.

The story unfolds through the eyes of the shy, self-effacing Miss Roach, a woman whose natural decency stands in stark contrast to the casual cruelty of the people around her; her fragile sense of self-worth, constantly undermined by her back-stabbing friend, the odious Vicki Kugelmann, the drunken ineptitude of her American lover, Lieutenant Pike, but most of all, her humiliation at the hands of one of Hamilton's most grotesque fictional monsters, the repellent Mr Thwaites - bully, narcissist, and Fascist sympathiser.

Despite the apparent tragedy of Miss Roach's situation, the pathos is relieved by Hamilton's unique black humour and his ability to write perfect, utterly convincing dialogue, infused with waspish comedy. Ever-present is the War itself, robbing the characters of their little comforts, dictating their everyday lives. An underrated, enjoyable, entertaining read. Great to see this wartime classic back in print again!
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A forgotten masterpiece, 21 Jul 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Slaves of Solitude (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) (Paperback)
This is without a doubt one of the greatest novels written about England in the Second World War - so why had I never read it until now? It's funny, cruel, compassionate, all the things that make Hangover Square, Hamilton's other major novel, such a joy. The characters - pitiful creatures in a suburban boarding house who bitch and drink their way through the War - are painfully vivid. The descriptions of sexual frustration, alcoholism and despair are spot on, and hilariously funny. I could rave on for the full 1000 words but I will say just one thing: READ THIS BOOK NOW.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, witty, above all, humane, 14 Nov 2000
By Chandler (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Slaves of Solitude (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) (Paperback)
Along with Hangover Square and One Thousand Streets Under the Sky, this is a tremendous novel. Hamilton writes beautifully about a cast of dreadfuls- the parochial bores, the bitchy backstabbing friends, and above all the boozers.

It is rare to read a book set in the 1940s which still seems so contemporary. The humour is biting and the depths and subtletys of character equal to Greene, Waugh and their ilk. Hamilton's writing brings to mind the Martin Amis school of tales from the London gutter, but his characters are achingly alive and never seem cartoonish.

Read all three...

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The Slaves of Solitude
The 1939 - 45 World War left Britain and the British people exhausted and impoverished. Nowhere was the darkness and devastation more apparent than in London and its environs... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. George Stevens

5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable
I have just finished Slaves of Solitude. Beautifully written and characters so real that you feel Hamilton must have drawn them from his experiences. Read more
Published 1 month ago by I. Pozsonyi

5.0 out of 5 stars A window into Englishness...
Miss Roach is exquisitely reserved, dignified, and true to herself; and her character remains such throughout. Read more
Published 6 months ago by S. Gibbs

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece
This is a classic , a great World War Two novel in which not a shot is fired. It shows what the 'home front' was really like without any sentimentality but goes beyond that. Read more
Published 9 months ago by J. H. Bretts

5.0 out of 5 stars Redemption on the Home Front
Very few writers ever managed to evoke the seedy, dreary atmosphere that gripped Britain in the years in and around World War II as well as Patrick Hamilton. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Melmoth

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for admirers of Patrick Hamilton
Any admirer of Hangover Square or the London trilogy should seek out and read this now out of print 1948 masterpiece, dealing with life in a small town boarding house during World... Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2006 by A Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars A long overdue reprint of one of Hamilton's best
Congratulations to Michael Holroyd for using his influence to secure the re-issue of The Slaves of Solitude (and Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky). Read more
Published on 16 Aug 1999

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