The Slaves of Solitude

Patrick Hamilton (1904-1962) was born in West Sussex, England. His father was a bullying alcoholic comedian and historical novelist; his mother, a sometime singer. After his mother withdrew him from Westminster School at the age of fifteen, Hamilton worked in the theater and then took up writing, publishing his first novel when he was nineteen and rapidly making a name for himself as an up-and-coming author. In 1927 Hamilton fell unhappily in love with a prostitute—an experience which was to inspire one of his masterpieces, the trilogy Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky. In 1932, he was badly injured and permanently disfigured after being hit by a car. Hamilton's finest works include Hangover Square, a Depression-era psychological thriller about intoxication, infatuation, and murder, and The Slaves of Solitude, a comedy about life behind the lines during World War II, which is also published by NYRB Classics. Both books are marked by a mixture of black humor and, in the words of his London Times obituary, a sensitivity to "the loneliness purposelessness and frustration of contemporary urban life." Hamilton also enjoyed a flourishing career as a writer of plays, several of which were made into successful movies, most notably Alfred Hitchcock's adaptation of Rope, starring Jimmy Stewart, and George Cukor's of Gaslight, which won Ingrid Bergman an Oscar. Hamilton died of cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure after a lifetime of heavy drinking. »

David Lodge is a novelist and critic and Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Birmingham, England. His novels include Changing Places, Small World, Nice Work, and Author, Author. His most recent works of criticism are Consciousness and the Novel and The Year of Henry James. »

By Patrick Hamilton
Introduction by David Lodge

England in the middle of World War II, a war that seems fated to go on forever, a war that has become a way of life. Heroic resistance is old hat. Everything is in short supply, and tempers are even shorter. Overwhelmed by the terrors and rigors of the Blitz, middle-aged Miss Roach has retreated to the relative safety and stupefying boredom of the suburban town of Thames Lockdon, where she rents a room in a boarding house run by Mrs. Payne. There the savvy, sensible, decent, but all-too-meek Miss Roach endures the dinner-table interrogations of Mr. Thwaites and seeks to relieve her solitude by going out drinking and necking with a wayward American lieutenant. Life is almost bearable until Vicki Kugelmann, a seeming friend, moves into the adjacent room. That's when Miss Roach's troubles really begin.

Recounting an epic battle of wills in the claustrophobic confines of the boarding house, Patrick Hamilton's The Slaves of Solitude, with a delightfully improbable heroine, is one of the finest and funniest books ever written about the trials of a lonely heart.

Reviews

Gritty, real, tough, and sardonic.... If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man.
— Nick Hornby

A welcome opportunity for contemporary readers to discover [Patrick Hamilton]...The author sketches the everyday with a deft, often comedic touch, yet never loses sight of the ultimate pathos of the human condition.
— Los Angeles Times

The author sketches the everyday with a deft, often comedic touch, yet never loses sight of the ultimate pathos of the human condition.
— Newsday

I enjoyed every page of this novel, and have never had the pleasure of seeing the panoply of loneliness and depression employed to such brilliant comic effect.
— Katherine Powers, The Boston Globe

Also see:

We Think the World of You
By J.R. Ackerley
Introduction by P.N. Furbank

This powerful short novel, with its extraordinary mixture of acute social realism and dark fantasy, was described by J. R. Ackerley himself as "a fairy tale for adults."

Improbable Heroes & Heroines Collection

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, The Slaves of Solitude, and Lolly Willowes

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky
By Patrick Hamilton
Introduction by Susanna Moore

A London La Ronde: Ella harbors a secret love for Bob, Bob is infatuated with prostitute Jenny, and the odious Mr. Eccles has designs on Ella. Hamilton's psychologically astute novel gives us three stories of thwarted passion.

Format: Paperback
Retail Price: $14.95
Price: $11.21 (25% off)

Feb 20, 2007
272 pages
ISBN: 1590172205
9781590172209
Literature in English
NYRB Classics

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