John Braine, Room at the Top

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

Ed. by Peter Childs, Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Room at the Top (1957), the first published novel by John Braine (1922-86), made an instant and strong impact. Braine was classified with the “Angry Young Men” (who were not wholly a media invention), and Room, although set in 1946, seemed to speak to the mood of Britain in the later 1950s, to a society throwing off deference and austerity and reaching out to new experiences. But in Room these new experiences were not primarily sexual or quasi-mystical, in the manner of the Beat Generation or the existentialists; Braine’s protagonist, Joe Lampton, was no dropout; he unashamedly wanted in, into money and material possessions and social acceptance. In key respects, he was a harbinger of the Yuppies, the brash …

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2888 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Room at the Top". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 December 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34892, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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