Hatter's Castle

289. Hatter's Castle, by A. J. Cronin (read 19 Oct 1946) When I finished reading this book my comment was: "It is, no doubt, Cronin's poorest work that I have read. Yet, it has a stark violence which forces attention." But I have never forgotten the book, and still remember how its scenes of domestic tragedy impacted my young and so innocent outlook.

Fairly long, but interesting novel about the horrors of pride. A horrible, mean man oversees and causes the complete destruction of his entire family, and his livelihood, all in the pride of his good name and the supposed pure blood flowing through his veins. And he is completely oblivious to his role....always the victim.....well, he'll show them!!! The unspeakable treatment of his family members is hard to witness, and the result is almost worse. Life in Scotland in the 1880's is interesting, and the inability of anyone to stand up to him is frustrating. A bit longer than it likely needed to be and the final blow was rather unexpected to me. But i did enjoy the read. A very early Cronin, and thus far, those i have read have all show more touched on doctoring of some sort, as does this. No regrets..... show less

The story takes place in the small Scottish town of Levenford in the late 1800s. James Brodie, absolute patriarch of his family and owner of a hat shop in town, is descended from nobility, although since his branch of the family began from an illegitimate child, they are not entitled to any of the family's privilege. Brodie, however, insists that his noble blood makes him better than everyone else in the town and is looked at as something of an oddity because of his corresponding behavior. The house he had built is a miniature castle, he refuses to let his older daughter see the man she loves because he is beneath her, he ships his son off to India to work for the most prestigious shipping company in the area, he forces his younger show more daughter to study during all of her free time so that she will be the first girl to win the town's university scholarship, and he finds fault with everything his wife and aging mother do or say. Throughout the five years that the novel covers his tyranny over his family drives them all away from him in one way or another and his massive ego drives him slowly insane.

This was Cronin's first book, and it shows a bit. I think he could have cut down the length quite a bit, and his descriptions of everything from the landscapes to the characters to the furniture were way too long and detailed. I also found Brodie's character to be a bit over the top. Other than that, I liked the book. He didn't cop out and give everyone who deserved it a happy ending, but he didn't totally screw everyone either, which meant that I was only able to predict parts of the ending. show less

Masterpiece! The old language made it a bit more challenging - but more entertaining - to read. All douchebags should read this and learn to lead better lives.

Cronins first novel about the downfall and disintegration of a proud scottish family. Having read a lot of Crinin's work in my youth I now have a deep distrust of anyone who says Scottish life is better than English

(Read with the voice of Vincent Price in your head) Read book 1/2 way about 20 years ago & it haunts me to this day. I feel i should find it again & find out What happens. Its my destiny..

J'ai lu tout Cronin, parce qu'il avait droit de cité à la maison et qu'on ne risquait pas grand chose à laisser les enfants le lire...Je me souviens particulièrement du "Chapelier et son chateau", qui sortait des habituelles histoires de missionnaires en Asie, et était l'histoire très brutale d'un tyran domestique, sacrifiant toute sa famille pour avoir enfin un chateau, comme un lord.