Like Men Betrayed
by John Mortimer
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Description
Like Men Betrayed is a vivid depiction of '50s England, from its sleepy rural idyll to its sleazy urban underworld. Blending the excitement of a thriller with the poignancy of a family divided and reconciled, this is one of Mortimer's brilliant early works.Tags
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Member Reviews
Beneath the caricatures and wonderful comic vignettes this is a deeply serious book. Family, duty and the purpose of life itself flow through from start to finish. Kit Kennet is largely an enigma, until his Father's sacrifical love turns him to the contemplation of his own existence. Finally the two characters seem to merge. The tired and rather grubby landscape of London in the 50's is marvelllously evoked.
When it takes over a week to read 100 pages, it's a sign that I'm not really into it. I can't put my finger on it but it never engaged me in any way. Bound for BookCrossing.
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Author Information
146+ Works 15,677 Members
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1953
- People/Characters
- Christopher "Kit" Kennet; Kit "Christopher" Kennet, Jr.; Hester Hume-Monument; Rolley Hume; Peggy Hume; Sandra Hume (show all 7); Sylvia Urqhuart
- Important places
- Worsfold; London, England, UK
- Epigraph
- Action is transitory, a step, a blow / The motion nof a muscle, this way or that / 'is done, andd in the after vacancy / We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed... / WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
- Dedication
- For Penelope Mortimer
- First words
- Two men faced eachother across the club table, the one cheerfully insensitive to the other's well-restrained dislike.
- Quotations
- The quiet streets, with the couples in stiff, dark clothes coming out of the park, the distant tinny summons to evensong in a neglected church, were heavy with the smell of Sundya. It made Kit shiver.
For he had walked her, during the morning, down the silent landscape of city streets, had shown her the ravens in the Tower and the wide, swollen river, and sought out the perfect spires and cupolas, the stone coats of arms a... (show all)nd urbane, shadowy dorways of the churches of Wren and Gibbs, churches in which the alderman's prayers and the endless Carolean sermons still, like light and shdow, seemed to linger. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And it was true that as he walked down the shadowed pavement of a London street that evening in early summer he looked more than ever beforelike the Kennet who had died.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 84
- Popularity
- 374,378
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 3
