- Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (31 Oct 1985)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140432183
- ISBN-13: 978-0140432183
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,546,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The House With The Green Shutters (Canongate Classics)
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Review
'a powerful 19th century novel...compellingly readable' --The Scotsman Magazine
'a tight and brilliantky controlled novel that perhaps says more about the dark soul of Scotland than any other fiction I have read' --The Herald --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
'a tight and brilliantky controlled novel that perhaps says more about the dark soul of Scotland than any other fiction I have read' --The Herald --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Product Description
In spite of his forebodings nothing more untoward befell him that morning than a cut over the cowering shoulders for being late, as he crept to the bottom of his class. He reached "leave," the ten minutes' run at twelve o'clock, without misadventure. Perhaps it was this unwonted good fortune that made him boastful, when he crouched near the pump among his cronies, sitting on his hunkers with his back to the wall. Half a dozen boys were about him, and Swipey Broon was in front, making mud pellets in a trickle from the pump.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a superb novel, bitterly funny but at the same time intense and disturbing in its realism. One of the best things about the book is the way that the author lets you know almost from the beginning exactly what is going to happen; you sit back and wait for the inevitable unfolding with mounting horror, not unlike young John waiting for his father's wrath in the kitchen of the eponymous house when he returns home having been expelled from university.
The malicious gossip and the petty schemes that the townsfolk use to get one over each other are treated in a really cynical and sarcastic way; you can all but taste the author's bile. Although the book is set in the nineteenth century you can still recognise similar characters in any Scottish town today.
If you have read Sunset Song I would recommend this book to you; it is not as romantic as that book can sometimes be, and I think that Brown's depiction of the town of Barbie as a grasping, petty and vindictive rats nest is a truer picture of Scottish life than the harmonious cooperative beehive of Kinraddie. The House with the Green Shutters isn't a book about what we have lost, it's a book about how things are in Scotland and how they have always been. I can't recommend it enough.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'The House with the Green Shutters' is undoubtedly one of the most sorely overlooked novels in the Western canon, and is arguably the greatest Scottish novel of all time. A passionate, angry indictment of Scottish village life and its petty cruelty, Brown was inspired by his treatment growing up illegitimate in rural Ayrshire to write this furious reaction to the idyllic, quaint Kailyard school.
The novel is relentless in its savage, tragic portrayal of the downfall of the Gourlay family, however, this shouldn't frighten off potential readers, as 'The House with the Green Shutters' has much to say about Scottish society at the turn of the century. A profound piece of literature, this novel deserves a place as one of the greatest works of European realism. Truely excellent.
The novel is relentless in its savage, tragic portrayal of the downfall of the Gourlay family, however, this shouldn't frighten off potential readers, as 'The House with the Green Shutters' has much to say about Scottish society at the turn of the century. A profound piece of literature, this novel deserves a place as one of the greatest works of European realism. Truely excellent.
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
What is tragedy and how does it work? These are questions you will understand better after reading this book. Set sometime in the second half of the 19th century, the story concerns the fortunes of the Gourlay family in the small Scottish town of Barbie. John Gourlay, a big, domineering, but intellectualy challenged man dominates the local economy and has a monopoly of the carrying trade. He is harsh and powerful, of bull-like stature, and famous for his glower. On a brae overlooking Barbie he has built the House wIth the Green Shutters. This house is both the symbol of his dominance and an object of hatred and envy to the townsfolk.
Aristotle defined tragedy as a story depicting the downfall of a great man. At first it is hard to see this stupid, cruel, and grasping merchant as a great man, but The House With the Green Shutters will also improve your notions of what greatness is. John Gourlay is great because there is no fear or compromise in him. Although he may wish to be well thought of by the small-minded, two-faced gossips of the town, he is not prepared to go one inch out of his way for them, scorning even the banal pleasantries of small talk or phatic communication. He wants only their respect not their love, and respect him they do even though they also hate him.
With all true tragedy the tragic element comes directly from the greatness. It is his greatness that destroys John Gourlay. His stubborn pride and unflinching courage are qualities more suited to some heroic age of battles and revolutions. They do not fit into the petty, hypocritical world of 19th century Scotland. In this unheroic world his heroic qualities can only work towards his downfall. The thought constantly in one's mind as you read this novel is, 'If only he were a lesser man . . .' His inability to compromise by lowering himself to the same level as his fellow citizens, works to his disadvantage. Unable to plot, maneuver, and dissemble, his little empire is soon undermined by the arrival in town of Wilson, a glib self-seeking nobody with no real passion, but a much abler businessman in tune with the times. Affable and manipulative, false and corrupt he starts to squeeze Gourlay out of one thing after another. This is ,in effect, the triumph of style over substance that so bedevils our modern age. Although grim, proud and dour, Gourlay is an honest man, inept at chicanery, and unable to bend to suit the occasion.
The House With the Green Shutters is a tragedy in the full classical Greek sense of the word; the preordained fall of a hero who doesn't fit into an unheroic world; a great bull sacrificed to appease the Gods for human hubris. It is even more poignant from the fact that its keynote of tragedy was reflected in the life of its young author who had the misfortune to die only one year after writing such a masterpiece.
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