The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Runner

Nine classic short stories portraying the isolation, criminality, morality, and rebellion of the working class from award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe The titular story follows the internal decisions and external oppressions of a seventeen-year-old inmate in a juvenile detention center who is known only by his surname, Smith. The wardens have given the boy a light workload because he shows talent as a runner. But if he wins the national long-distance running competition as everyone is counting on him to do, Smith will only vindicate the very system and society that has locked him up. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” has long been considered a masterpiece on both the page and the silver screen. Adapted for film by Sillitoe himself in 1962, it became an instant classic of British New Wave cinema.    In “Uncle Ernest,” a middle-aged furniture upholsterer traumatized in World War II, now leads a lonely life. His wife has left him, his brothers have moved away, and the townsfolk treat him as if he were a ghost. When the old man finally finds companionship with two young girls whom he enjoys buying pastries for at a café, the local authorities find his behavior morally suspect. “Mr. Raynor the School Teacher” delves into a different kind of isolation—that of a voyeuristic teacher who fantasizes constantly about the women who work in a draper’s shop across the street. When his students distract him from his lustful daydreams, Mr. Raynor becomes violent.   The six stories that follow in this iconic collection continue to cement Alan Sillitoe’s reputation as one of Britain’s foremost storytellers, and a champion of the condemned, the oppressed, and the overlooked.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author’s estate.

La Solitude du Coureur de Fond

From the author of 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' come stories of hardship and hope in post-war Britain.

 The title story in this classic collection tells of Smith, a defiant young rebel, inhabiting the no-man's land of institutionalised Borstal. As his steady jog-trot rhythm transports him over an unrelenting, frost-bitten earth, he wonders why, for whom and for what he is running.

 A groundbreaking work, 'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner' captured the grim isolation of the working class in the English Midlands when it was first published in 1960s. But Sillitoe's depiction of petty crime and deep-seated anger in industrial and desperate cities remains as potent today as it was almost half a century ago.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

Voici une date dans l'histoire du roman anglais : Alan Sillitoe décrit l'évolution contemporaine de la classe ouvrière anglaise comme un changement important de la condition de l'homme d'aujourd'hui. Son héros Arthur Seaton a le même âge que lui, c'est un véritable a angry young man ». Mais son instinct de révolte n'a déjà plus d'objet : il a de l'argent, la télévision et une série de com-plets dans son armoire. Samedi soir, dimanche matin démêle avec une grande intelligence la part du réalisme du siècle dernier et celle d'un nouvel anarchisme moderne. Il suggère que bien des valeurs littéraires reconnues ne sont que des attitudes de classe, et par là même, il fait don au roman de terres encore inexploitées.

Samedi soir, dimanche matin

Arthur Seaton a vingt ans, et sa vie à Nottingham semble déjà toute tracée dans cette Angleterre de l'après-guerre. Sa morne semaine est rythmée par les cadences infernales de l'usine. Arrive alors le week-end où il peut enfin se défouler et exprimer sa rage de vivre. Le samedi, en faisant la tournée de pubs où il noie sa détresse dans l'alcool. Le dimanche, en se réfugiant dans les bras de ses amantes et dans des parties de pêche en solitaire. OEuvre majeure du groupe des « Angry Young Men » et de la littérature anglaise, Samedi soir, dimanche matin raconte avec une extraordinaire justesse les ravages du capitalisme industriel au sein de la classe ouvrière et la révolte quotidienne de ces rebelles désormais sans cause. Un roman culte, adapté avec succès au cinéma, qui a inspiré quantité d'artistes aussi divers que John King, Ken Loach, Madness, The Smiths ou encore les Arctic Monkeys.

Smith, interné pour braquage dans une maison de correction de l'Essex, est rétif à toute forme d'autorité. Le directeur veut faire de lui un modèle de réhabilitation, et le pousse à remporter le prix national de course de fond. L'adolescent veut s'en sortir à sa façon. Pour l'instant, il cède, s'entraîne avec acharnement. Et quand l'heure viendra, il n'obéira qu'à ses propres règles.

La solitude du coureur de fond

A wonderful historical novel from one of our best loved and most prolific writers

 As a young man Ernest Burton was a bold and reckless journeyman blacksmith, seducing all young girls he comes across. We watch him grow to become a master Blacksmith, and a tyrannical father of eight who refuses even to try to remain faithful to the woman he married and who reigns over his young family with an iron fist, instilling in his sons and daughters a mixture of fear and hatred of him. Burton is an extraordinary fictional creation - a bully who shows no mercy in his relentless terrorism of his sons, he can also be effortlessly charming, with a magnetic attraction that effects all he meets.

 Written in the sparse, plain language that Sillitoe has made his own, A Man of His Time is a mesmerising portrait of an extraordinary individual, aware that he is, in many ways, the last of a dying breed. It's a rich, absorbing, wonderfully readable novel that covers decades and crosses generations, depicting with singular brilliance an England poised on the brink of change.

A Man of his Time

Alan Sillitoe, né le 4 mars 1928 à Nottingham et mort le 25 avril 2010 à Londres, est un écrivain britannique, l'un des Angry Young Men (jeunes hommes en colère) des années 1950.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sillitoe

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