Buy used: $24.87

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Tuesday, November 22 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Friday, November 18

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Drum's Books

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Patrick Hamilton

Hangover Square Paperback – January 1, 2006

by Patrick Hamilton (Author)

60 ratings

Part of: Fiction - General (15 books)

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

—

$21.38

Paperback

"Please retry"

$24.87

—

$4.74

Audio CD, Audiobook

"Please retry"

—

$157.99

"Hamilton . . . is a sort of urban Thomas Hardy: . . . always a pleasure to read, and as social historian he is unparalleled."-Nick Hornby

"A much better writer than Auden, Isherwood . . . and his novels are still true now. You can go into any pub today and see it going on."-Doris Lessing, The Times

Adrift in the grimy pubs of London at the outbreak of World War II, George Bone is hopelessly infatuated with Netta, a contemptuous, small-time actress. George suffers from occasional blackouts, during which one thing is horribly clear: he must murder Netta.

Patrick Hamilton enjoyed worldwide popularity during the 1930s. His play Rope was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, and another, Gaslight, was a great success on the stage before being made into a film starring Ingrid Bergman.

Print length

280 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Europa Editions
Publication date

January 1, 2006
Dimensions

5.3 x 1 x 8.2 inches
ISBN-10

9781933372068
ISBN-13

978-1933372068
See all details

425
Paperback
22 offers from $4.88
Patrick Hamilton
218
Paperback
30 offers from $8.99
Patrick Hamilton
268
Paperback
36 offers from $4.95

425
Paperback
22 offers from $4.88
Patrick Hamilton
218
Paperback
30 offers from $8.99

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hamilton (1904–1962) captures the edgy, obsessive and eventually murderous mindset of a romantically frustrated British man in this WWII-era novel published in the U.S. as a separate volume for the first time. As the story opens, 34-year-old George Harvey Bone—a heavyset, good-hearted failure—is obsessed with his ongoing effort to either woo or, frighteningly, kill the lovely Netta Longdon, a callous, smalltime London actress whose charms seem limited to her physical beauty. Longdon shows little interest in Bone's advances, but she always seems ready to take advantage of Bone's generosity and to stab him in the back by, say, sleeping with one of his lowlife cohorts. As the book progresses and Bone gets more and more intense, it becomes clear that the virtual fugue state that he periodically enters is undiagnosed schizophrenia—the twist is that everyone else's behavior is so beastly that Bone's plottings feel pretty much deserved. Hamilton is less successful introducing political material on Hitler's rise to power as the forces of war begin to overwhelm Britain, but the subtle power of the free indirect prose he uses to render Bone's deteriorating mind makes this an impressive character study and an oblique (and bleak) look at beleaguered prewar London. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

An intoxicating thriller. -- Library Journal (starred review)

Hangover Squares hapless protagonist is one of the great tragic fools in modern fiction. -- The Villiage Voice

Makes almost all other hard-boiled writing seem phoney once read, it becomes forever after a part of your experience. -- The Boston Phoenix

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1933372060
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Europa Editions; First Edition (January 1, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781933372068
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933372068
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 1 x 8.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,286,770 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16,426 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #58,803 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
60 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Patrick Hamilton

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		14%
3 star		14%
2 star		4%
1 star		7%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Bob Richey

Before The Days of Mental Illness

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 26, 2011

Verified Purchase

This book was published in 1941 at the early rumblings of the Second World War. The plot takes place starting in 1938 when those rumblings were only hints and the Prime Minister of the UK, Neville Chamberlain was still talking about negotiating with Mr. Hitler and there will be "peace in our time". He later said that the invasion of Poland was an aberration and did not mean much in the whole scheme of things. At the end of our book the "peace in our time" was remembered as the barrage balloons were raised in London and the Battle of Britain news replaced the invasion of Poland news.

That was all background to this story of artists and other unemployed people in the gritty Earl's Court area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The story is truly noir and reminds me of some of the early motion pictures directed by Sir Alfred Hitchcock, though this story is not a mystery. Even in the reading of this book, the scenes that I imagined were in black-and-white. As I read this book, I was continuingly reminding myself that it was published in 1941 though the main theme of the plot involved a medical condition which I had not realized was really identified that early. In this case, the main character, George suffers from a condition of "near" schizophrenia. He only has a single personality, but there are times when he shifts into another reality.

I enjoyed the book, though at times, I was not sure that I would. The talent of this author and his way of building his plot and manufacturing his story structure was fascinating to me.

This is a book which had gone out of print some time ago but Europa Editions chose to bring it back into publication in 2006. That run was successful for a second reprinting in 2009. I am certainly glad that they did.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

R. J. Marsella

Suspenseful, Insightful and Dark- Great Book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 16, 2011

Verified Purchase

Patrick Hamilton chronicled the darker side of London life , particularly the life of those who spent a good part of that life drunk and in pubs in the 1930s. In Hangover Square, he created the character of George Harvey Bone, a large simple man who is obsessed with a woman who is part of his drinking circle and is also incredibly self centered and cruel to him. George has schizophrenia and is subject to periods of blackouts where he doesn't recall much other than a dark vision of revenge.
The plot takes the characters from London to Brighton and back as well as between two sets of friends. The drinking companions of George and Netta the object of his fixation who are equally cruel to George, take him for granted and use him comprise one group. This is contrasted with a group that revolves around an old school friend of George's whom he meets by accident and through him has a moment of reprieve and clarity as he is suddenly around people who see his Netta for who she really is and tell him.
Hamilton's writing is crisp and the ominous sense that all of this will end badly is established early in the novel. This is the second book if Hamilton's that I've read and he has quickly become one of my favorite authors.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

The Peace of Madness

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2008

Verified Purchase

Patrick Hamilton's 1941 novel, Hangover Square, is confirmation that hangovers form the foundation of alcoholism. Palliation of symptoms is only a drink away. The main character, George Harvey Bone leads the reader into a world of drink-inflicted physical illness, and we understand it as a way of life for all the important characters. But, George has an additional illness, schizophrenia, that creates another world available only to him and to the reader. Hamilton's writing is seductive, and the reader accepts and wants to enter this second dimension. We want George to go beyond the hangover and "click" into his special psychotic state. It is in this state that George achieves a peace he cannot get any other way, safe from the chaos of hangover square and his obsession with Netta. Safety, however, is governed by evil, and readers are confronted with the peace of their own evil desires.

Hangover Square is a novel of physical and mental sickness that shows parallels with the so-called normal lives of readers. Hamilton's wonderful insight into the human comedy/tragedy makes this novel come to life even though, on the surface, readers do not feel that they have much in common with the characters. This insightful style is evident in another Hamilton novel, The Slaves of Solitude (1947). I predict that when readers enter George's two worlds, they will discover that they are only one drink and one click away from illness and madness.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Clayton Curtiss

DCI Banks's recommendation

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

I came to "Hangover Square" by a strange route. One of my favorite fictional characters is DCI Alan Banks, created by Peter Robinson. In his most recent book, "Children of the Revolution" Banks is reading "Hangover Square" and commenting on what a great, but unappreciated novel it is. So I ordered it from Amazon. It clearly lives up to Banks's praise. George Bone lives in two mental worlds, in neither of which is he especially comfortable, in London on the eve of World War 2. In his character study the author, Patrick Hamilton, follows George through both his worlds as he is intent on killing Netta, a lovely with whom he is entranced. He has no idea why he must kill her but as he interacts with her we come to realize that he would be completely justified in blotting out her life. The character of George is properly enigmatic and his emotional fluctuations understandable. About the ending of the book, all I can say is that it will blow you away. And thank you DCI Banks and Peter Robinson.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Lady Fancifull

A subtle, tragi-comic tale of a good man undone by adoration, `in darkest Earl's Court'

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 14, 2014

Verified Purchase

Patrick Hamilton is a not-quite-forgotten, admired author, who specialised in getting inside the heads of those who were disaffected, on-the-margins, or even, dangerously psychopathic - he was a stage and film writer, as well as author, and responsible for the highly charged, tightly wound, thrillers of sinister psychopathology, Gaslight, and Rope

Hangover Square was one of his most iconic novels. Set primarily in London on the very edge of, and then just at the start of, the Second World War, this follows the fortunes (pretty well unstoppably downwards) of George Harvey Bone, a not quite impoverished, weak willed man with a severe drinking problem, some undiagnosed dissociative mental health problems, and a dangerous 2 year infatuation with a hard, vicious untalented actress.

Bone is an unlikely subject to capture a reader's compassionate interest, yet he does, because despite the fact that he is someone of a definite wasted life, a bit of a bumbling, naïve and pathetic character, he is nevertheless like a lost and vulnerable puppy, possessed of great sweetness of temperament, despite his irritating flaccidity of purpose

Netta, the object of his adoration, is a beautiful and completely amoral, woman, without any charm, wit, intelligence, talent or likeability. Her one asset is her extraordinary beauty, which is clearly barely even skin-deep. Whereas Bone is a marshmallow, ineffectual, likeable drunk, Netta, and her closest crony, louche, spiteful Peter, are hard, aggressive, deeply unpleasant drunks.

The trajectory of the story is George Bone's worsening mental health problems, and the hopeless infatuation with Netta, who is completely uninterested in George, in any way, except as someone to sponge money from, and exploit.

This should be an unbearably depressing book, but instead, there is a kind of gentle humour in George, a puppyish enthusiasm and a potential for excitement and joy which carries the reader along, despite the awareness of the grim background of war on the horizon, the predictable and nasty leanings towards Fascist sympathies espoused by Netta and Peter, and George's inability to free himself from the nest of vipers he can, in some ways, clearly see.

Perhaps Hamilton's ability to make us feel George from the inside, and care about him, too, comes in part from what must have been a certain self-identification in the writer, as Hamilton himself had a disastrous relationship with alcohol, child of an alcoholic father, he died in 1962 of liver cirrhosis. He was a writer who definitely identified with the underdog, the marginalised, and the powerless in society.

J.B. Priestley in his introduction to the the Penguin Classics edition of Hangover Square, describes Hamilton as one of the best `minor novelists' writing in the interwar and beyond years. And lest that seems like damning with faint praise, it is I think fair, admiring praise.

However.........I should caution anyone who gets this edition, with the Priestley introduction to AVOID reading that introduction if you have never read Hangover Square, as foolishly, in the closing paragraph of his otherwise pertinent and interesting introduction, he reveals one of the major spoilers.

3 people found this helpful

Greying Fox

A real sense of the seamier side of life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 23, 2013

Verified Purchase

I bought my first Patrick Hamilton book on the basis of reviews by others, and each new book is a delight. He has a rare ability in his descriptive writing, both in conveying the most profound innermost emotions, and taking you into a world where you can almost smell the stale beer, cheap perfume and the smoke hanging on London streets on a wet November evening. These are not fast-paced, all-action novels: they will appeal to readers who want to immerse themselves deeply in a character and a lifestyle. Mesmerisingly good.

2 people found this helpful

Tony Hyland

Masterpiece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

One of the greatest novels of the 20th century by a country mile! Existential,heartbreaking,disturbing-the great Patrick Hamilton novel that you must read.Clear influence on Greene and Pinter.

5 people found this helpful

roger Manifold

Intresing storyline

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

A dark and haunting place, fastidious detailed writing that does draw you in, as a whole the concept of the story is interesting and I like the detailed historical references, I thought the ending could have offered more, I'm torn between a 3 or 4 star review

Suzie Wong

Fantastic read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 9, 2013

Verified Purchase

I only heard about this by reading something about Sophie Eliis Bexter who recommended it. It is a great read, set in Earls Court - so if you live near it you will be fascinated by how different the area was then contrasted with how it is now. Such a fun enjoyable read and definitely recommended - and thankyou Sophie!

2 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Follow the Author

Hangover Square Paperback – January 1, 2006

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Patrick Hamilton

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries