{"product_id":"twenty-thousand-streets-under-the-sky-isbn-9781590172568","title":"Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky","description":"\u003cb\u003eNYRB Classics presents 3 darkly humorous, atmospheric novellas of love and disappointment, set in a run-down London pub after WWI—from the author of the Hitchcock classics\u003ci\u003e Gaslight\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eRope.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Bleak and brilliant. . . an authentic lost classic.” —\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFeaturing a Dickensian cast of pubcrawlers, prostitutes, lowlifes, and just plain losers who are looking for love—or just an ear to bend—Hamilton’s novels are a triumph of deft characterization, offbeat humor, unlikely compassion, and raw suspense. In recent years, Hamilton has undergone a remarkable revival, with his champions including Doris Lessing, David Lodge, Nick Hornby, and Sarah Waters.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTwenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e is a tale of obsession and betrayal that centers on a seedy pub in a run-down part of London. Bob the waiter skimps and saves and fantasizes about writing a novel, until he falls for the pretty prostitute Jenny and blows it all. Kindly Ella, Bob’s co-worker, adores Bob, but is condemned to enjoy nothing more than the attentions of the insufferable Mr. Eccles; Jenny, out on the street, is out of love, hope, and money. We watch with pity and horror as these three vulnerable and yet compellingly ordinary people meet and play out bitter comedies of longing and frustration.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncluded:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Midnight Bell \u003c\/i\u003e(1929)\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Siege of Pleasure\u003c\/i\u003e (1932)\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Plains of Cement\u003c\/i\u003e (1934)\u003cp\u003e\"The rediscovery of English writer Hamilton (\u003ci\u003eHangover Square, The Slaves of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e)  continues with this tale of obsessive love in the low-rent pubs of 1930s London -  so evocatively rendered you almost smell the smoke and spilt ale.\" --\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“No  other English writer has written so acutely about sexual infatuation, embarrassment  and self-delusion.” –\u003ci\u003eTime Out\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Unsurpassed as a recorder of lonely urban existence  in the mid-20th century.” –Lynne Truss, \u003ci\u003eThe Times \u003c\/i\u003e [UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hamilton is a master at  reproducing the inflated talk of betrayed lives.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e [UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The wonderful  1935 trilogy, \u003ci\u003eTwenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, is set in a pub off the Euston  Road. Every detail is spot on; Hamilton’s remorseless eye weaves an atmosphere as  thick as bar smoke.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Independent \u003c\/i\u003e[UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Bleak and brilliant…an authentic lost  classic.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A little-known classic of English literature.” –\u003ci\u003eSeattle  Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“When I came upon Hamilton's name in this book, I got out \u003ci\u003eHangover Square\u003c\/i\u003e and found, just as my Penguin edition blurbed, \"one of the great novels of the 20th  century.\" (Suffice it to say that Hamilton writes about street life with an honesty  and lyricism, an absence of sentimentality or fetish for squalor, that should make  nearly every hard-boiled writer hang his or her head in shame.)” –Charles Taylor,  Salon.com\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Patrick Hamilton is being revived again. And it looks serious this time…  JB Priestley was an early supporter. Hamilton's book \u003ci\u003eThe West Pier\u003c\/i\u003e was generously  described by Graham Greene as \"the best novel ever written about Brighton\". He was  John Betjeman's favourite contemporary novelist. Writers from Julie Burchill to Doris  Lessing are warm admirers. Biographer Michael Holroyd has written numerous essays  and introductions. Nick Hornby recently described him as 'my new best friend'.” —\u003ci\u003eThe  Independent \u003c\/i\u003e[UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Until recently, my bedside table has been tilting under the weight  of various Victorian novels; now I'm planning a book with a post-war setting and  have put myself on a diet of slimmer, mid-20th-century works…Most exciting, however,  has been Patrick Hamilton's fiction: I am halfway through \u003ci\u003eThe Slaves of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e,  his nervy, hilarious study of the claustrophobic awfulness of British boarding-house  life; now I have his trilogy, \u003ci\u003eTwenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, to look forward  to.” –\u003ci\u003eSunday Times \u003c\/i\u003e[UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[Hamilton’s] scenes of pub life (and much of the action  of the trilogy takes place off those 20,000 streets in an array of licensed premises)  are perfectly realized. They enable him to bring a near-Dickensian sense of the comic  to a gallery of the most appalling pub bores. It is certainly worth the attention  of a new generation of readers.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Birmingham Post\u003c\/i\u003e [UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This reprinted classic  well deserves its shelf space with new novels…The magic lies in Hamilton's ability  to get inside the head of his rather tragic and innocent characters, and in his power  of description, especially of pubs. The atmosphere of 1920s-30s London hostelries  and the joys of having a drink in them makes you long to be there, watching one of  the scenes he so vividly describes unfold in the corner.” –\u003ci\u003eCoventry Evening Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHamilton captures the \"authentic atmosphere of what it was like to live in England  between the two world wars\". –Michael Holroyd\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"He is a master.\" –J. B. Priestley\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Patrick Hamilton was a marvelous 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 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.” –Doris Lessing, \u003ci\u003eThe Times \u003c\/i\u003e[UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A magnificent  portrait of the renting twilight class of 1930s London. Too bleak for its own times,  its nihilism suited us just fine.” –\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A criminally neglected British  author.” –\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“My big discovery of the year has been Patrick Hamilton.  His trilogy \u003ci\u003eTwenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, written in the 1920s, is a beauty  - one of the finest books I've ever read.” –Dan Rhodes, \u003ci\u003eSunday Glasgow Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I've  gone Patrick Hamilton crazy. I was blown away by the superbly excruciating \u003ci\u003eTwenty  Thousand Streets Under The Sky\u003c\/i\u003e , and I'm going to track down some of his out-of-print  novels. He writes brilliantly about infatuation and drunkenness - two subjects close  to my heart.” –Dan Rhodes, \u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e [UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"It's rainswept and melancholy–just  my kind of stuff.” –Phil Davis, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e [UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hamilton wrote a world into being  that still exists: a London world of smoky pubs and bedsits, homeless individuals  and forlorn lovers, people at the pictures, people in Soho, English men and women  living in and around the centre of the city's capital in the first decades of the  last century, people full of yearning and loneliness. He was a poet of the foggy  lamplight and the nicotine-stained ceiling, and we mustn't forget him. We daren't.  We are still in need of his intelligence and his moral insight.” –\u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A writer I love is Patrick Hamilton…I am reading his trilogy, which is called \u003ci\u003eTwenty-Thousand  Streets Under the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e. His world is a world of thwarted dreams in the 1920s and '30s.  His writing is phenomenally good.” –Wesley Stace, \u003ci\u003eThe Newark Star-Ledger\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hamilton  was an expert at describing the simple sadnesses of unfulfilled lives” –\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Hamilton was the son of a tyrannical, drunken barrister and a failed actress.  He published his first novel at 19, establishing himself as one of the bright young  novelists of the 1920s and 1930s, only to be knocked over by a car at the height  of his career and badly disfigured. Despite professional success, his work reflected  his life -rootless and depressed, buffeted by failed relationships and awash with  alcohol -and he died in 1962 of cirrhosis of the liver.” –\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e [UK]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Funny  and moving trilogy of low-life love affairs in 30s SoHo” –\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJune 27,  1987\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Writers such as Lynne Truss and Nick Hornby are proclaiming his genius. Hamilton  is about to be ‘rediscovered.’” –\u003ci\u003eThe Daily Telegraph\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHamilton...loves his ominous narratives. He’s a sort of urban Hardy: everyone is doomed, right from the first page....It’s sad, but Hamilton’s laconic narrative voice is always a joy to read, and as a social historian, Hamilton is unbeatable.\u003cbr\u003e— Nick Hornby \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePatrick Hamilton\u003c\/b\u003e (1904—1962) was born into a literary family and became active in the theater at a young age. He was a prolific writer, both of fiction and for the stage, and a notorious alcoholic. Among his most famous novels are \u003ci\u003eHangover Square\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Slaves of Solitude\u003c\/i\u003e (NYRB Classics).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSusanna Moore\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the novels \u003ci\u003eMy Old Sweetheart, The Whiteness of Bones, Sleeping Beauties, In the Cut, One Last Look\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Big Girls\u003c\/i\u003e, as well as a book of non-fiction, \u003ci\u003eI Myself Have Seen It\u003c\/i\u003e. She lives in New York City.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303654609125,"sku":"NP9781590172568","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590172568.jpg?v=1767743065","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/twenty-thousand-streets-under-the-sky-isbn-9781590172568","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}