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Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky A London Trilogy New York Review Books Classics Patrick Hamilton Susanna Moore 9781590172568 Books

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Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky A London Trilogy New York Review Books Classics Patrick Hamilton Susanna Moore 9781590172568 Books

This is a trilogy of pure genius. Each section focuses on the perceptions and inner life of one of the 3 characters we are introduced to in the first section titled " The Midnight Bell " . The Bell is a pub in London that attracts a mixed though mostly working class crowd. Working there are two young people Bob , a waiter, and Ella the barmaid. Early on Bob makes the acquaintance of an attractive young prostitute named Jenny.
The structure of the three sections of this are incredibly unique as each of these in turn becomes the focus and the reader sees the same events through the perspective of these very different and well developed characters. In the first story Bob becomes obsessed with Jenny and pursues her despite the obvious futility of his objective which is painfully apparent to the reader. In the second part we become more attuned to Jenny's past and her downfall, seeing both her character flaws and circumstances in ways that Bob had been blind to. Finally Ella , who is secretly in love with Bob , is revealed in part 3 as a young woman trying desperately to figure out her place in the world as she is courted by a man who is much older and is confronted with some difficult choices.

The most remarkable aspect of all this is the way Hamilton creates these parallel lives and allows the reader to see more about the inner lives of the characters than their counterparts can perceive. Hamilton's writing is atmospherically brilliant and London itself as it was in the 1930s comes alive in these pages. I've read that his work has been largely neglected which is a shame since this was a writer with deep empathy for the characters he created and should be classified among the greats. I feel lucky to have stumbled on this and highly recommend it.


Tags : Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy (New York Review Books Classics) [Patrick Hamilton, Susanna Moore] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Patrick Hamilton may be best known now for the plays Rope</i> and Gaslight</i> and for the classic Alfred Hitchcock and George Cukor movies they inspired,Patrick Hamilton, Susanna Moore,Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky: A London Trilogy (New York Review Books Classics),NYRB Classics,1590172566,Literary,City and town life,City and town life;Fiction.,London (England),London (England);Fiction.,Classics,FICTION Literary,FICTION Urban,FICTION Women,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Literary,FictionClassics,GENERAL,General Adult,Great BritainBritish Isles,Modern fiction,United States,literary fiction;gifts for women;urban fiction;urban books;fiction;novels;gifts for her;fiction books;women;literature;books fiction;realistic fiction books;women gifts;women's fiction;england;hollywood;art;mystery;satire;romance;film;advertising;classic;crime;english literature;drama;music;love;comedy;historical;french;philosophy;espionage;relationships;german;affair;feminism;friendship;obsession;american literature;journalism;marriage;theatre;surrealism;screenplay;fashion;thriller;plays;spy,20th century; british literature; english literature; literary fiction; literary; satire; contemporary fiction; british fiction; friendship; relationships; philosophy; marriage; historical; comedy; maugham; gifts for women; urban books; fiction; gifts for her; fiction books; women; women gifts; literature; urban fiction; england; classic; art; hollywood; music; modern; film; drama; love; theatre; mystery; books about books; advertising; publishing; german; old age; espionage; roman; crime; artists; kennedy; surrealism; coming of age,FICTION Women,FictionClassics,Fiction - General,Fiction,Modern fiction

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky A London Trilogy New York Review Books Classics Patrick Hamilton Susanna Moore 9781590172568 Books Reviews

Patrick Hamilton was a popular novelist and playwright in England during the 1920s through the 1950s. He wrote eight novels all with a very smooth and fluid style. His descriptions of environment, events, and characters are perceptive, and his artistic understanding of them is evident in his interpretive comments within the descriptions. The reader will enjoy the intrusive voice of the author in his novels, a technique that can be distracting in less skilled authors.

Hamilton was comfortable writing stories about individuals trapped by circumstances in lives of daily toil, limited funds, memories of wars, restricted hope for the future, illusions of perfect love relationships, and reliance on alcohol to live briefly in an impossibly glorious present.

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is a trilogy including The Midnight Bell (1929), The Siege of Pleasure (1932), and The Plains of Cement (1934). Published in one volume by the New York Review of Books, the novels describe life in London after The Great War from the points of view of a waiter in a neighborhood public house called The Midnight Bell, a prostitute working the streets near the pub, and a barmaid serving drinks to the mostly well-behaved denizens of the bar.

The Midnight Bell is written from the point of view of Bob, a former sailor and would-be author who has come to realize he does not have the motivation or talent to actually write a book. Hoarding his money and daydreaming through his daily chores in the pub, Bob encounters Jenny, a pretty prostitute, and becomes obsessed with a delusion that he has found his true love in life.

In The Siege of Pleasure, the point of view shifts to Jenny. The reader follows her adventures from her working class origins modeling her neighbors' solid work ethic to dissolution of character as she discovers the insidious hedonism of alcohol. This discovery plus Jenny's physical attractiveness and youth cause her to give up her work ethic and live her life manipulating men like Bob.

In The Plains of Cement, Hamilton changes the point of view to Ella who toils in The Midnight Bell and lives in an uncomfortable room next to Bob above the bar. Unlike Jenny, Ella loves Bob who is friendly but does not return her affection. Ella never misses a day of work even though she sees senseless years of economic hardship ahead.

Each novel is a complete story with persistent attention to detail and consistently good writing. Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is an excellent trilogy with seems similar to two of the author's other great novels, Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude (see my Customer Reviews).

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky is autobiographical and illustrates Hamilton's own obsessions, identification with the working class and the downtrodden, and bleak view of his own life in spite of literary success. I strongly recommend the trilogy to readers and give the work a five star rating.
A barmaid Ella and a waiter Bob work in an average London pub Midnight Bell. The time is - somewhere between the two World Wars. Both Ella and Bob are in their late twenties, both are single. Ella is in love with Bob, he's not aware of that, and Ella would never ever give Bob even a slightest hint at her feelings.

Meanwhile Bob meets a beautiful young Jenny, who's a prostitute, a street girl, and he falls madly in love with her, even though he knows who she is and she keeps giving him plenty of reasons to believe that she would never mend her ways, would never find a "regular" job, would never be faithful to him. Bob is only too happy to be deceiving himself, making himself blind to the obvious.

There are three parts in the book. The first one, "The Midnight Bell", is mostly about Bob and his mad and ruinous love to Jenny. The second part is about Jenny, about her childhood and how she became a prostitute. Both first and second part are very good (if a bit moralistic); Hamilton with his usual precision describes details of everyday life, feelings, thoughts and emotions of his characters.

The most beautiful and unexpected part, though, is the third one, "The Plains of Cement". This part is about Ella, and about one Mr. Eccles who starts "making advances" towards her, and eventually becomes her fiancé - against all odds, because he's twice her age, not good looking at all, and is an insufferable bore. Ella, who's shown by Hamilton as having natural taste, tact, beautiful sense of humor - but being a barmaid with no means or getting proper education, feels obliged to reciprocate to Mr. Eccles' advances, who - she thinks - is a real gentleman, educated and from a good family, and, most importantly - has money.

It is sad and sobering to read how big a role money considerations play in shaping behavior of a nicest character in this book. Hamilton spares no effort showing what a beautiful person Ella is in every respect she's delicate, caring, considerate, polite, just name it - and if even she must consider marrying a man she despises & reviles, one cannot help but think what other women would do in her situation.

In this third part Hamilton's prose quality rivals that of Jane Austin's in its precision, subtle humor, nuanced description of human feelings, behavior and interaction. The third part also gives one a very interesting view of British class system, and relationships between different social strata. "The Plains of Cement" definitely deserves 5 stars.
This is a trilogy of pure genius. Each section focuses on the perceptions and inner life of one of the 3 characters we are introduced to in the first section titled " The Midnight Bell " . The Bell is a pub in London that attracts a mixed though mostly working class crowd. Working there are two young people Bob , a waiter, and Ella the barmaid. Early on Bob makes the acquaintance of an attractive young prostitute named Jenny.
The structure of the three sections of this are incredibly unique as each of these in turn becomes the focus and the reader sees the same events through the perspective of these very different and well developed characters. In the first story Bob becomes obsessed with Jenny and pursues her despite the obvious futility of his objective which is painfully apparent to the reader. In the second part we become more attuned to Jenny's past and her downfall, seeing both her character flaws and circumstances in ways that Bob had been blind to. Finally Ella , who is secretly in love with Bob , is revealed in part 3 as a young woman trying desperately to figure out her place in the world as she is courted by a man who is much older and is confronted with some difficult choices.

The most remarkable aspect of all this is the way Hamilton creates these parallel lives and allows the reader to see more about the inner lives of the characters than their counterparts can perceive. Hamilton's writing is atmospherically brilliant and London itself as it was in the 1930s comes alive in these pages. I've read that his work has been largely neglected which is a shame since this was a writer with deep empathy for the characters he created and should be classified among the greats. I feel lucky to have stumbled on this and highly recommend it.