Understanding Alan Sillitoe

Known primarily for his novels Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, Sillitoe has written more than fifty books over the last forty, years, including novels, plays, and collections of short stories, poems, and travel pieces, as well as more than four hundred essays. In this comprehensive study of the major novels and short stories, Hanson reveals Sillitoe's artistic influences and the dominant thematic concerns of his works.Hanson begins her analysis with an account of Sillitoe's early life and his beginnings as a writer during the war years in Nottingham. She carefully examines such literary influences as D. H. Lawrence, Victor Hugo, Robert Tressell, Israel Joshua Singer, and Robert Graves.Focusing on Saturday Night and Sunday Morning; The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner; Men, Women, and Children; Her Victory; Leonard's War; and Snowstop, Hanson also considers four dominant themes found throughout Sillitoe's work.