The Picturegoers

by David Lodge

Lodge's first published novel.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Contemporary, Humor

238 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

David John Lodge was an English author and critic. A literature professor at the University of Birmingham until 1987, some of his novels satirise academic life, notably the "Campus Trilogy" – Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) and Nice Work (1988). The second two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another theme is Roman Catholicism, beginning from his first published novel The Picturegoers (1960). Lodge also wrote television screenplays and three stage plays. After retiring, he continued to publish literary criticism. His edition of Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (1972) includes essays on 20th-century writers such as T.S. Eliot. In 1992, he published The Art of Fiction, a collection of essays on literary techniques with illustrative examples from great authors, such as Point of View (Henry James), The Stream of Consciousness (Virginia Woolf) and Interior Monologue (James Joyce), beginning with Beginning and ending with Ending.

Reviews

[Annie Donette · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘On paper’ this book was made for me, yet I didn’t enjoy a single page. I tick all the boxes as target audience:
Resident of Brockley (‘Brickley’ in the book) ✅
Avid ‘picturegoer’ ✅
Catholic upbringing ✅
Penchant for the vintage ✅

So what went wrong?

Firstly, this is a very masculine book, and an adolescent male one at that. Testosterone-driven characters leer with a salacious gaze at females who exist solely for their benefit. This doesn’t make for pleasurable reading.

More broadly speaking, it has not stood the test of time. It’s not just phrases like “tart”, “negro” and “invalid” being banded about either. The style of the whole thing just seems very dated, like a now unfunny sitcom that was once fashionable. Rather than vintage charm, we find ourselves cringing at times better forgotten.

In the introduction, David Lodge tells us that this was his first book, and is somewhat apologetic about the quality of writing (which does not bode well!) His inexperience shows through the dumping of many ideas without allowing space for them to be fully realised.

It’s a shame, as the vignettes style has proved successful with modern romantic comedies, but doesn’t work here. There are numerous characters following different paths, yet only two of them are given any development, so the rest are surplus to requirement. We simply don’t care and it’s frankly boring to read!

That’s not to say that there aren’t some interesting themes operating behind the scenes. I would have loved to have read more on:
- The comparison of church and cinema
- Cinema’s metamorphic role in the lives of individuals
- Cinema’s social ethics and its place in society

In the end, though, it turns out that this wasn’t for me as it was deemed to be. I see it as a missed opportunity.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

For man years I looked forward to the newest release of the orange spine, Penguin editions of novels by David Lodge. So it was that I first read Picturegoers back when this reprint of his 1960 novel was so issued. I have now read it twice. I enjoyed both reads.

In his introduction Lodge tells us that this was his first published book. He admits to the fact that this is a somewhat raw first attempt. In the second read I got a whiff of this as an author’s first publication on page one. Within a few pages, I was too engrossed in the various characters who will develop across this continuous slices of life novel.

The novel builds around a number of people who almost all have as their common ground, the aging Palladium Theater, last of the grand British theaters of the Berkley's Empire. Fittingly we first meet Mr Brinkley. He is the manager of this barely surviving movie house. He too is aging and like his movie house not entirely gracefully.

Gracefully is perhaps a key word for this book. While the movie house is used as a place to meet Lodge’s ensemble cast, the major concern of the book is Catholicism. It will be the various aspects of this religion and life in 1960

1960's England that will be the main interest of The Picturegoers. The center of this discussion is lapses Catholic and Graduate student of English, Mark Underwood and his romantic interest former Convent nun Clare Mallory. Mark is living at the Mallory’s a good and good hearted Catholic family. Members of this large family, including the parents and several of the siblings will also be part of this character studies that will together be the plots, or rather competing plot lines of this book.

Other characters include the Parish Priest, a man almost too innocent to be believed. A almost as innocent couple dealing with his pending induction into the military and the fact that in their day and time a dating couple had to adhere to strict limits on their time together. The Movie house is home to a dangerous pervert and is being studiously avoided by a religious fanatic who fancies himself a rival for Clare’s attention.

Over all Lodge juggles his separate and mixed lives with agility. He introduces light and dark in ways that build tension and leaves the reader uncertain about the various outcomes.
The major reversal between Mark and Clare is not entirely convincing. Other resolutions tend towards the too pat .Otherwise The Picturegoers is a well-constructed entertainment. More than entertaining it asks the reader to seriously consider several aspects of believe in general and Catholicism in particular. Books that make a point of treating the reader as an intelligent person play to something I most want from a writer.

Against the legitimate claims against weaknesses in its resolutions and the occasionally overly florid language should note that this is early David Lodge, he gets better.

[Richard Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, and engaging enough for me to read to the end - I picked this book up by chance in a bookshop with a limited selection of English language books. It is my first book I've read by David Lodge set around a series of characters whose main commonality is that they go to the same cinema. Actually, it could almost as much be about religion and the church as for many of the characters the local catholic church and catholicism is also a common feature of their lives. I'm afraid I just found it all a bit dull. Perhaps that was the point - drab lives, but I found little real pleasure in reading this book. Maybe it was just not for me, as I started with it is well written.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Picturegoers is David Lodge's first novel and it read very much like one. He has continued to release novels for over 40 years, was short-listed twice in the 1980s for the Booker Prize, and always gets respect from British book reviewers. Therefore he is included in My Big Fat Reading Project. Therefore I read his first novel.

The charming aspect of The Picturegoers is its portrayal of the end of an era when everyone went to the movies because there was not yet any television. The movie theater of the novel works, somewhat awkwardly, as a micro-environment for several disparate characters and their stories.

The key character, Mark Underwood, is a self-centered literature student who comes to board with a Catholic family. Mark falls in lust with the family's eldest daughter (a convent-raised 19 year old recently rejected in her desire to become a nun) and pretends to return to the church from which he had lapsed. As the daughter falls in love with Mark and becomes a modern woman, Mark falls back into Catholicism and decides he may become a priest.

I think this rather TV sitcom type plot was meant to be tongue in cheek, but it made me queasy. David Lodge admits as much in his introduction to the 1993 Penguin reissue. So I will continue to read his novels as I move through the decades and see where he went from here.

[Stela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always said, almost in wonder, that David Lodge is his best reviewer. “In wonder” because it is known that the authors (even those with a background in literary studies) are usually the worst critics of their works, maybe because they fail to understand that their creations tend to acquire a life of its own after they finished it ☺. But not David Lodge – his observations are always insightful and revelatory. Moreover, he never tries to influence the reader, so they are also trustful.

It is the same for The Picturegoers, his first novel, for which he wrote an Introduction at the second edition and which he looked upon with indulgence, pointing out its inherent faults with affection and with a quiet pride for his young accomplishment:

Like most first novels, it tends to be a receptacle for whatever thoughts and phrases the author was nurturing at the time of composition, whether or not they are relevant. There are some improbabilities and clichés in the characterization where I was obviously out of my depth. (…) if there are people who wish to read the book, I am not sufficiently embarrassed by it any longer to want to stop them; but it is offered as a curiosity, a piece of apprentice work, and a document of its time, with all its original flaws and blemishes untouched.

And all Lodge’s fans will be pleased to find indeed his untrained but equally mesmerizing voice in this novel, and will be happy to establish correspondences with his later works – the Catholic faith obsession, the coincidence as a narrative tool, the mismatched couples, the humour, etc. Furthermore, its best feature is the reconstruction of a place we have some vague memories about – the cinema hall of our childhood, crowded and dirty and noisy and so attractive!

There are also some very good portraits, in his unmistakable caricature style, that mixes unexpectedly cartoon and reality, like in hybrid films that put together animation and actor playing:

The only shadow cast across that first, pleasant evening was a rather grotesque and ominous one – the dog-like facial silhouette of Damien O’Brien, with the sloping lines of his forehead, nose and jaw almost parallel. One could forgive his ugliness – though it was difficult not to be disgusted by the small pale eyes, the rough, scurfy skin, the yellow crowded teeth – if he hadn’t been so insufferably oblivious of it himself.

Overall, a pleasant reading for anyone, and an interesting one for those who like David Lodge’s writing enough to want to see how it all began.

[Margaret Pitcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoying this. I found it in one of my boxes of old books and it makes me want to read more of his books. Life in pre- computer, pre- car and telephone for most people, times.

Yes, this was great. Being born at the end of the fifties to a Mum who was brought up in a strict RC family (and never quite recovered), this had lots of resonances for me. I love books about London and this draws a picture of a post war city, still peppered with bomb sites, people who didn't starve, but who had little opportunity or money for leisure, so the romance of the pictures still played a big part in brightening their lives. And the cinema in furthering their romances.

There is a vignette of the poor parish priest going to the pictures and seeing the 'wrong' film which is very funny. The antidote to Fifty Shades!

[Alistair Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Next in a series of books I have pulled off my shelf. I have read it before, but have no memory of it. It follows my reading of Changing Places, which in turn followed my reading of Rate of Exchange.

As a fairly random selection it turned out not to be one of his campus novels, but rather one based around religion, and specifically Catholicism. As such, it follows on from my recent reading of How Far Can You Go?

This edition includes an introduction by the author. I did not read that until I had finished the book. It gave an interesting insight into the book. He is quite self-critical about this, his first published novel, but revealed aspects that I probably would have missed.

As usual, I suspect there are layers that I missed. I quite liked the story, the interaction between the characters (of whom there were quite a lot), but it probably made points about religion that passed me by.

[Eileen Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great memories

Outstanding depiction of a former era brought back lots of happy memories. . So beautifully written in Lodges inimitable style this was my third reading and stil ientrances

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Putting you in the picture
I read a lot of David Lodge's novels, and greatly enjoyed them, when I was younger. I was about to buy a copy of this, his first novel (published in 1960), for my daughter's birthday before I checked my shelves and discovered we already had a copy. I've just read (or maybe re-read - I can't recall) it, and found it compelling in its depiction of a bye-gone age - both physically (a post-war London suburb) and spiritually (the Catholic church prior to the modernizations of the Second Vatican Council).

The author assembles a varied cast of characters, describing them succinctly - e.g., the father of a large family moves "despite his evident exhaustion, with the grace that characterized all his actions" [p49] - and sets them moving in a recognisable landscapes, both internal and external - e.g. his daughter gravitates towards "the grimy little park [where she] watched with agreeable melancholy the duckpond tirelessly forming circles under ceaseless battery of the rain" [p133]. Lodge is good at this sort of description - later on, the hero recalls a street whose yellow sodium lamps have "that delicate rosy glow for the first few minutes after they are switched on" which, against the dark blue sky, look like "fabulous lantern plants in a land of faerie" [p177]. And his observations about his characters' thoughts can be directly apposite - thinking adolescent suffering touching because "their sins and neuroses, like babies' excrement, gave no offence" [p168]. Elsewhere, he quotes the apophthegm "a good Catholic is a man whose wife goes to church" [p126], which, given the age of this book, might be one of its early appearances in print.

The Catholic aspects of this story include a priest who fulminates against the distractions of the cinema, and a hero who travels from cynicism to spirituality (aided by participating in the Student Cross pilgrimage, with which I was very familiar) whilst his girlfriend is going in the opposite direction - from faith to worldly passion. Some of the characters (e.g. Harry the Teddy boy) might appear to have been added to the cast for didactic reasons, and the various endings might appear a little too contrived. In addition, I detected some minor issues - for example, the musical genre is written as Rock 'n Roll [p208], and someone is referred to as a "geyser" rather than - as I think was intended - "geezer" on p233.

Finally, on p104, Fr Kipling starts to read the Epistle after Fr Francis has read the Gospel; this is an abstruse technical point, but these two parts of the Mass are the wrong way around. Spotting this reminded me of when I detected a similar error in one of Lodge's later books, and - like the priggish, nitpicking character Damien in this story - wrote to the author to point it out, receiving a gracious reply.

Despite straining at these gnats, I greatly enjoyed this tale. Recommended.

Originally reviewed 15 October 2024

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

No Love for the Cinema

Various assorted characters attend the rather run down Palladium cinema, and the story follows their lives and relationships over the course of a year. On the whole they are interesting people and I cared what happened to them, which is always a good sign. However, I was slightly disappointed by the dreary impression given of the picture going itself. None of the people seemed to have any real enthusiasm for the cinema, or to enjoy it very much. This is contrary to my own experience of cinema going in the 60s. In a book called The Picturegoers I would have expected to find at least a few people who really enjoyed going to the cinema, and it slightly spoilt my enioyment of the book that none of them loved the cinema in the way that, for instance, I did. Or even liked it much. There is less humour than in most of David Lodge’s other books, and more intensity, and I found myself wanting to skip some of the rathe long theological ramblings. Still, for a first novel written at an early age, this is an impressive book.

[Pascale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very much a young man's book, full of angst about sex and the Meaning of Life, but quite charming and worth reading if you love the mature David Lodge. The role-reversal between Clare, who loses a great deal of her religious zeal when she falls in love, and Mark, who finds his religious vocation (possibly) through his acquaintance with Clare and her jolly Irish family, is really a little too pat. Indeed, one of the flaws of this book is that it is too neat, finding ways for all the characters to move forward and be accounted for, even the angry would-be rapist Harry, who turns into a decent chap the first time a girl asks him to dance with her. It's only too easy to see why Lodge hesitated to allow a reprint of this title: while strong on structure, it lacks subtlety. Yet it is quietly enjoyable in its own way, especially if you want to be reacquainted with the musty smells of Britain before the Swinging Sixties.

[Pippa Catterall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The conceit of writing a novel about the lives of various movie goers in an unfashionable suburb of London is a good one. Through telling their somewhat interwoven stories Lodge’s first novel demonstrates his eye for social details and the vicissitudes of existence. There is always, however, a certain Olympian detachment in his work which here can come across as snide and patronising. His dismissive comments on what he seems to see as the superficiality of rock and roll are a case in point. Yet, ironically, Lodge’s passage about the effects of this music evokes more genuine spirituality and redemptive qualities than the somewhat under drawn conversion and vocation for the priesthood acquired by his principal character.

[Tommie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has an excellently observed male protaganist, but literally every other character around him exists more as a cartoon. The women especially can't seem to have an interest that's philsophical or cultured unless, literally, they are doing so to impress a man. It feels very much like the first novel of a young man in the 1950s who hasn't quite worked out that women too have interior lives. That being said, it's good fun to peek at London (especially Brockley, where the novel is set and the cinema is now a block of flats and an architects office) at that time, and to consider what must have felt like an urgent debate around morality when written wouldn't cross most residents minds today's.

[Paul Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read this soon after it was published by Penguin in the early 1990s. I’d read all of his novels and our paths crossed for a few floors in a shared cubical on paternoster lift at Birmingham University. I picked it up again on the day David Lodge died in early 2025, partially because its Brickley, the Brockley and New Cross borders where he grew up, is local to me. It’s well written and observed but felt very dated, perhaps more so than the likes of Sillitoe and the early work of Barry Hines. When first read, the likely location for the cinema, was then a night club but post COVID is boarded up. It provoked a few interesting conversations with older Lewisham residents but as a read I probably wish I’d gone back to where I started with him - Changing Places.

[Grant Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

My second Lodge novel. This was his first published novel and, by his own admission, is not as polished as later work. It is a good story though and, since it was published in 1960, it reflects a key point in Britain's social history when it moved from the austerity of post-war economics to the so called swinging sixties when youth movements, music, television and other cultural changes were supplanting the old guard of cinema and traditional values. I enjoyed it and also really liked the authors introduction looking back on this time and his pursuit of a writing career.

[Andrew Wardle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars actually. David Lodge's first novel, and one he apparently wasn't keen to have reissued. But I actually thought it was fresher and less pretentious than some of his later work. Similar perceptive observations on the small stresses of everyday life and well-drawn, believable characters. Similar to "How Far Can You Go ?" (which I also liked) in focussing on the struggle of young Catholics to sustain their faith in the face of social change and the liberal attitudes of the 1960s.

[Paulisbored · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's well written and neatly put together but there was little emotional investment in many of the characters. There are almost too many to care about making it seem a little forced at times. He's written much better.

[Edward Whittle · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like David lodge you will enjoy this book. His description of post war London is again engrossing and fascinating. The characters are developed very originally and it’s questioning of the secularisation of Britain and it’s consequences make for a great read.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

His first published novel. Hard to believe he wrote this in his early 20s. So perceptive and good. A wonderful read. I also liked his thoughts on the book in he introduction as well as the reason he agreed for it to be republished

[Andrew Leat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just couldn't finish it. Even the author apologises for it in the introduction. Many reviews agree with me and I am disappointed to give in. Maybe try again one day, but unlikely.

[Navid Hasan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 actually. I was looking for a nice, light read and it was just the thing.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Language quite dated but interesting read.

[Rick Bach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely stuff

[Mary Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes post-WW2 life in London seem so drab and horrible. The story gets going and it ends a little more cheerfully, with the protagonist returning home.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was David Lodge's first novel, and although not without flaws, was a very enjoyable read. Many of the themes that predominate in his later books are present, but are presented in a more social realist way. There is social comedy, but it isn't as pronounced as in The British Museum is Falling Down and the books that followed. Out of print for some time I was pleased to find this by chance in a second hand bookshop in Brigg. Although these days pretty much any book can be found and ordered within minutes through Amazon, there's still a lot of pleasure to be had from happening upon books you didn't know you we're looking for on the shelves of second hand book shops.

[Avalina Kreska · Rating 4 out of 5]

David's vivid, descriptive style of writing hooked me from the get-go, the psychological character depths of these disparate people's lives I enjoyed. However, I only gave it four stars because towards the end, the most sinister character suddenly changed attitude, this could have been expanded upon rather than leaving it to our imagination (especially as psychology was David's style throughout). The book ended with one of the main characters going home which was a kind of damp squib that ended too early. I wanted to see what would happen next, so there was definitely room for a sequel . . .

[Yak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just reread this, which is Lodge's first novel, and a very good one two, esp. knowing that it was published when he was 25. A nice combination of interesting characters, plot-lines tying the together, and implied commentary on religion, movies and families at the dawn of the rock-n-roll era in England. Highly recommended.

[Pip Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this many years ago & had completely forgotten it, but after reading David Lodge's memoir "Quite a Good Time to be Born" I was curious to re-read it. I had forgotten how 'catholic' is is. It is in harmony with the time in which it is set & very enjoyable & funny in places. Well worthwhile.

[Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this excellent first novel, the author gives a nice impression of London in the 1950s. It is a bit dated and too Roman Catholic. Still, David Lodge is always a treat. In this book, you recognise many of the themes developed in his later work.

[Geoffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rereading David Lodge's first published novel, first read circa 1994 in the Penguin edition with an introduction by the author.

A bit long in parts, but readable. You can see the beginnings of Lodge's œuvre, thematically and stylistically.