About this title: A novel concerned with the gay relationship between William Beckwith (rich, unemployed, in his early twenties) and Lord Nantwich (comfortable, cultured and elderly) who become entwined when William saves Lord Nantwich from death. This is the first novel by the deputy editor of the "Times Literary Supplement".
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780394570259ISBN:0394570251
Description: Good. No dust jacket. Wear to edges of soft cover. Light page tanning from age. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Acceptable. 1989-Paperback---Used-Acceptable. Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1989-09-19
ISBN-13:9780679722564ISBN:0679722564
Description: Fair. Tear on the edge of the front cover that goes halfway down the page. Every heavytail order includes with a sweet! We carefully hand clean and reinspect each and every item we ship. Our quality control process ensures items to be in the condition described or better. Heavytail is determined to earn your repeat business through old fashioned customer service. We love international orders. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books; Vintage International Ser., New York
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679722564ISBN:0679722564
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 336 pp.; 21 cm. Tight, clean copy. Browning. "A literary sensation and bestseller both in England and America, The Swimming-Pool Library is an enthralling, darkly erotic novel of homosexuality before the scourge of AIDS; an elegy, possessed of chilling clarity, for ways of life that can no longer be lived with impunity. 'Impeccably composed and meticulously particular in its observation of everything' (Harpers & Queen), it focuses on the friendship of two men: ... read more
Binding: S Trade Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Canada, Limited, Toronto, ON, Canada
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780140116106ISBN:0140116109
Description: Very Good. This book is square and solid. It has a couple stress marks along the spine. Cover is clean and shiny with some minor edgewear, and the book has a solid binding. You're bound to treasure this splendid book! ! ! read more
Edition: First Paperback
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage International, New York
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679722564ISBN:0679722564
Description: Near Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 336 pp. First printing thus. The book is very slightly bowed. The binding is tight and the text is clean. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE @ TRADE
Description: Very Good. Very good+ paperback. Pages are clean and unmarked. Covers show light edge wear.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Free Delivery Confirmation! Ships same or next business day! read more
Edition: Edition Unstated
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679722564ISBN:0679722564
Description: Very Good- As issued No Jacket. Slight spine lean, corner bump, pages age toning, and some other light to moderate shopwear. read more
"Often one is disappointed when reading an author's earlier works. Not so with Alan Hollinghurst, best known for the Man Booker Prize winner The Line of Beauty in 2004. In his debut novel The Swimming-Pool Library Hollinghurst shows mastery of elegant descriptive language in a story set about gay life in England before AIDS hit. William Beckwith, a pretty, young aristocrat leading a lesiured life of promiscuity, saves the life of an elderly peer named Charles Nantwich in a public lavatory, leading to a friendship wherein Charles persuades William to write his memoir. That device allows Holllinghust to alternate between two generations of the gay experience -- Will's semi-open decadence contrasted with Charles' more closeted but no less rich life, some of which was spent in Political Service in Africa, chronicled in detailed journal entries. Literary and erotic at the same time, Hollinghurst builds a slow burning sexual tension throughout without much of a plot until the last few chapters. There one is left wondering how a novel driven mostly by character and beautiful language can seem anti-climatic. Locker rooms, showers, promiscious gay sex might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if it doesn't turn you off then you might want to take a dip in The Swimming-Pool Library."
"I was very sad when this ended. The narration is so well-done and delicate -- it wraps you (by you I mean me) up in the protagonist's head without you even knowing until something happens that makes you see how closely identified you've become. There's one scene in particular that does this to dazzling effect. It's around page 197 - I omit mentioning particulars not because it would spoil the plot or anything, but because if you're going to read it you deserve to come on it fresh. And for a book with such an emphasis on promiscuity, it's not the bombastic in-your-face sex of, say, Palahniuk. It's just a fact. A faceted fact of these character's lives. There's a lot of it, and some of it can be filed under gay cliche, but was never too much for me. Which takes some doing--sex is notoriously hard to write. Moreover, there's a switching between time periods/memoirs and the two echo each other in a cattycorner way, not overly twinned. Satisfyingly realistically. So, yeah: a quiet, very well-written book."
"wow, i am starting to understand references in one gay novel to another!!
brideshead revisited x giovanni's room???
written post-AIDS, but set pre-AIDS. this makes it quite different from Dancer from the Dance, though the opposite from what one would suppose--Dancer has this doomed feeling about it, while Library is a carefree romp.
Hollinghurst does this rather clever thing of having no woman ever appear in the book. There are women through the phone but clever strategems exclude them from ever actually meeting the narrator.
"I would lie if I tell I wasn't in shock while reading this book. This is first gay novel I've ever read and that's why I was very interested in it. Especially after so fabulous reviews which "The Swimming-Pool Library" has. Actually I"m not sure what kind of story I expected, maybe some story about homosexual relationship like in movie "Philadelphia" (with or without AIDS). "Philadelphia"? Ha, ha! comparing with this book even Almodovar with his movies is a little kid. This is SO different! Hollinghurst is writing without any barrier, his vocabulary is sharp and totally naked; he doesn't hesitate to use right word and right verb. This is book without euphemisms. I've read certain parts to my friend and he asked me "How can you read this pornography?" and indeed it is (first part) on the very final border of pornography and so-called "serious literature" so I guess it is truth that this is quite brave novel. Sometimes I had to close this book and take a deep breath before I continue reading. So, first (dark) part of the novel was "difficult" for me with all those aggressive explicit sexual scenes and equal life style. But then later I've realized the point of such describing. It is fabulous (although sometimes hard for digest) picture of one way of living and it was necessary for bypassing mental abyss of main character. Now, I'm not sure how much truth there is in this novel? I mean it's little hard to believe that this kind of (homo) sexual supermarket exist. Even in London. Then also it changed my perspective about gay relationships with such an enormous lasciviousness.
OK to end this journal, this book is definitely not for everyone but at the end I could say that I'm very glad that I've read it. It is one nice parallel between gay life in the past and the present time (which is more-less the same) but especially parallel between attitude of public society and government then and now and accepting existence of gay population. This is good book; yes sometimes shocking but then that could often be a compliment :-)
(and by the way: this book has one of the most original cover arts I've ever seen!)"
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