Sandel [Hardcover]

Angus Stewart (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hutchinson (1968)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0090860209
• ISBN-13: 978-0090860203
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,760,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotional tour-de-force., March 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sandel (Hardcover)

Angus Stewart's novel "Sandel" was first published in 1968. I found the paperback edition in 1971, in a standard Australian bookshop. Strangely enough, at that time, I was the same age (19) as David Rogers - one of the main characters; but it's the protaganist: Anthony Sandel, who's the real star-player in this extraordinary novel. Mr Stewart's ability to create such vivid images in the reader's mind is truly astonishing, and at the book's end, most readers will surely come to think of Anthony and David as almost real people.

When the book was originally published, a London newspaper made this comment: "Mr Stewart has really succeeded with this young character, and in depicting a love which truly exists and is not despicable." How true that statement is. However, Bruce Lang, one of the minor players in the story, is also an interesting character. Even though he's a legitimate friend of David Rogers, he finds it impossible to come to terms with the fact that David could love a 13-year-old choir boy.

Would this book be too controversial for the repressive '90s? I doubt it; it was a success in the late 1960s and early '70s. Surely it's time for a reissue, so that this magnificent novel can be enjoyed by a whole new audience.

Even though "Sandel" is very suitable for general audiences, it's a must-read for anyone who understands the underlying philosophy behind famous English public schools.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now due to be re-issued, surely??, December 9, 1998

By 

ch0pper "ch0pper" (SOUTHAMPTON, Hampshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sandel (Hardcover)

This book, which I first read in 1969, and found in an ordinary bookshop(!) must surely be due for a reprint, now that we live in more tolerant times.

It is a gentle, romantic, sensitive and realistic portrayal of first love and the dilemmas facing the teachers or pubescent boys, growing aware of their sexual power.

A wonderful read.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Choir-school classic, June 5, 2004

By 

Robert Coates "villageorganist" (Harøy, Norway) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sandel (Hardcover)

Of the comparitively few novels based in an English choir school, this is certainly one of the best. Head choirboy Antony Sandel's voice is at its peak; a possessive and highly emotional friendship develops between him and David Rogers, a university undergraduate. Their relationship flourishes as the voice develops; Rogers takes on work as a master in the school - which bears certain characteristics reminiscent of that in Evelyn Waugh's "Decline and Fall".

The book is a period piece with much authentic detail from the sixties in Oxford University, the College Chapel (called "The Temple" - a sort of amalgam of the cathedral and the other choral foundations in Oxford), and the Cotswolds. It's delightfully evocative of time and place, and of prep-school life - short trousers, boats on the river, afternoon tea and cricket before Evensong. With the book's Forster-like ambience, understated passion and Morse/Harry Potter-like setting, this book is more than ripe for being made into a film. I hope somebody will do so in due course