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The Gorse Trilogy: The West Pier, Mr Stimpson And Mr Gorse, Unknown Assailant
In Ernest Ralph Gorse, Patrick Hamilton creates one of fiction’s most captivating anti-heroes, whose heartlessness and lack of scruple are matched only by the inventiveness and panache with which he swindles his victims. With great deftness and precision Hamilton exposes how his dupes’ own naivete, snobbery or greed make them perfect targets. These three novels are shot through with the brooding menace and sense of bleak inevitability so characteristic of the author. There is also vivid satire and caustic humour.
Gorse is thought to be based on the real-life murderer Neville Heath, hanged in 1946.
Patrick Hamilton was born in 1904, and achieved early success as a novelist and playwright, his first novel published in his early twenties. He wrote several other novels and a play, Rope, before he was thirty. Both Rope and another play, Gaslight, were adapted for the big screen, the former by Alfred Hitchcock. His novels include Craven House, The Midnight Bell, The Siege of Pleasure, The Plains of Cement (a trilogy later published together under the title Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky), Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude. He died in 1962, aged fifty-eight, alcoholism undoubtedly a factor in his early death.
‘The entertainment value of this brilliantly told story could hardly be higher’
L.P. HARTLEY
‘a marvellous novelist who’s grossly neglected’
DORIS LESSING
‘A riveting dissector of English life’
KEITH WATERHOUSE
Gorse is thought to be based on the real-life murderer Neville Heath, hanged in 1946.
Patrick Hamilton was born in 1904, and achieved early success as a novelist and playwright, his first novel published in his early twenties. He wrote several other novels and a play, Rope, before he was thirty. Both Rope and another play, Gaslight, were adapted for the big screen, the former by Alfred Hitchcock. His novels include Craven House, The Midnight Bell, The Siege of Pleasure, The Plains of Cement (a trilogy later published together under the title Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky), Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude. He died in 1962, aged fifty-eight, alcoholism undoubtedly a factor in his early death.
‘The entertainment value of this brilliantly told story could hardly be higher’
L.P. HARTLEY
‘a marvellous novelist who’s grossly neglected’
DORIS LESSING
‘A riveting dissector of English life’
KEITH WATERHOUSE
864 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
37 people are currently reading
366 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Hamilton
88 books288 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
He was born Anthony Walter Patrick Hamilton in the Sussex village of Hassocks, near Brighton, to writer parents. Due to his father's alcoholism and financial ineptitude, the family spent much of Hamilton's childhood living in boarding houses in Chiswick and Hove. His education was patchy, and ended just after his fifteenth birthday when his mother withdrew him from Westminster School.
After a brief career as an actor, he became a novelist in his early twenties with the publication of Monday Morning (1925), written when he was nineteen. Craven House (1926) and Twopence Coloured (1928) followed, but his first real success was the play Rope (1929, known as Rope's End in America).
The Midnight Bell (1929) is based upon Hamilton's falling in love with a prostitute, and was later published along with The Siege of Pleasure (1932) and The Plains of Cement (1934) as the semi-autobiographical trilogy 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (1935).
Hamilton disliked many aspects of modern life. He was disfigured badly when he was run over by a car in the late 1920s: the end of his novel Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), with its vision of England smothered in metal beetles, reflects his loathing of the motor car. However, despite some distaste for the culture in which he operated, he was a popular contributor to it. His two most successful plays, Rope and Gas Light (1938, known as Angel Street in the US), made Hamilton wealthy and were also successful as films: the British-made Gaslight (1940) and the 1944 American remake, and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948).
Hangover Square (1941) is often judged his most accomplished work and still sells well in paperback, and is regarded by contemporary authors such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd as an important part of the tradition of London novels. Set in Earls Court where Hamilton himself lived, it deals with both alcohol-drinking practices of the time and the underlying political context, such as the rise of fascism and responses to it. Hamilton became an avowed Marxist, though not a publicly declared member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. During the 1930s, like many other authors, Hamilton grew increasingly angry with capitalism and, again like others, felt that the violence and fascism of Europe during the period indicated that capitalism was reaching its end: this encouraged his Marxism and his novel Impromptu in Moribundia (1939) was a satirical attack of capitalist culture.
During his later life, Hamilton developed in his writing a misanthropic authorial voice which became more disillusioned, cynical and bleak as time passed. The Slaves of Solitude (1947), was his only work to deal directly with the Second World War, and he preferred to look back to the pre-war years. His Gorse Trilogy—three novels about a devious sexual predator and conman—are not generally well thought of critically, although Graham Greene said that the first was 'the best book written about Brighton' and the second (Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse) is regarded increasingly as a comic masterpiece. The hostility and negativity of the novels is also attributed to Hamilton's disenchantment with the utopianism of Marxism and depression. The trilogy comprises The West Pier (1952); Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), dramatized as The Charmer in 1987; and in 1955 Hamilton's last published work, Unknown Assailant, a short novel much of which was dictated while Hamilton was drunk. The Gorse Trilogy was first published in a single volume in 1992.
Hamilton had begun to consume alcohol excessively while still a relatively young man. After a declining career and melancholia, he died in 1962 of cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure, in Sheringham, Norfolk.
He was born Anthony Walter Patrick Hamilton in the Sussex village of Hassocks, near Brighton, to writer parents. Due to his father's alcoholism and financial ineptitude, the family spent much of Hamilton's childhood living in boarding houses in Chiswick and Hove. His education was patchy, and ended just after his fifteenth birthday when his mother withdrew him from Westminster School.
After a brief career as an actor, he became a novelist in his early twenties with the publication of Monday Morning (1925), written when he was nineteen. Craven House (1926) and Twopence Coloured (1928) followed, but his first real success was the play Rope (1929, known as Rope's End in America).
The Midnight Bell (1929) is based upon Hamilton's falling in love with a prostitute, and was later published along with The Siege of Pleasure (1932) and The Plains of Cement (1934) as the semi-autobiographical trilogy 20,000 Streets Under the Sky (1935).
Hamilton disliked many aspects of modern life. He was disfigured badly when he was run over by a car in the late 1920s: the end of his novel Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), with its vision of England smothered in metal beetles, reflects his loathing of the motor car. However, despite some distaste for the culture in which he operated, he was a popular contributor to it. His two most successful plays, Rope and Gas Light (1938, known as Angel Street in the US), made Hamilton wealthy and were also successful as films: the British-made Gaslight (1940) and the 1944 American remake, and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948).
Hangover Square (1941) is often judged his most accomplished work and still sells well in paperback, and is regarded by contemporary authors such as Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd as an important part of the tradition of London novels. Set in Earls Court where Hamilton himself lived, it deals with both alcohol-drinking practices of the time and the underlying political context, such as the rise of fascism and responses to it. Hamilton became an avowed Marxist, though not a publicly declared member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. During the 1930s, like many other authors, Hamilton grew increasingly angry with capitalism and, again like others, felt that the violence and fascism of Europe during the period indicated that capitalism was reaching its end: this encouraged his Marxism and his novel Impromptu in Moribundia (1939) was a satirical attack of capitalist culture.
During his later life, Hamilton developed in his writing a misanthropic authorial voice which became more disillusioned, cynical and bleak as time passed. The Slaves of Solitude (1947), was his only work to deal directly with the Second World War, and he preferred to look back to the pre-war years. His Gorse Trilogy—three novels about a devious sexual predator and conman—are not generally well thought of critically, although Graham Greene said that the first was 'the best book written about Brighton' and the second (Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse) is regarded increasingly as a comic masterpiece. The hostility and negativity of the novels is also attributed to Hamilton's disenchantment with the utopianism of Marxism and depression. The trilogy comprises The West Pier (1952); Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953), dramatized as The Charmer in 1987; and in 1955 Hamilton's last published work, Unknown Assailant, a short novel much of which was dictated while Hamilton was drunk. The Gorse Trilogy was first published in a single volume in 1992.
Hamilton had begun to consume alcohol excessively while still a relatively young man. After a declining career and melancholia, he died in 1962 of cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure, in Sheringham, Norfolk.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
November 24, 2021
I read The Gorse Trilogy: The West Pier, Mr Stimpson And Mr Gorse, Unknown Assailant after reading Hangover Square (my first Patrick Hamilton novel). Since then I have read all his novels and he has become a favourite author. These three novels are not as good as Hangover Square (what is?) however there is still much to enjoy and they're far better than many would have you believe.
All of three novels give the reader a wonderful insight into England in the 1920s and 1930s, in particular the highly delineated class structure. It is class-based assumptions that enable anti-hero Ernest Ralph Gorse to successfully hoodwink those he encounters. The best book of the three is Mr. Stimpson And Mr. Gorse (1953). Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce and her Reading-based companions are wonderful - and hilarious. Gorse's early years are entertainingly evoked in The West Pier (1951). As a Hove-based reader I particularly enjoyed this book. The final book Unknown Assailant (1955), is less successful but still has its moments.
I wish Hamilton could have lived long enough to write more Gorse novels. He hints at what is to come but alas we will never know exactly how it would have all ended for our anti-hero. Despite this, I heartily recommend these novels. Especially for those who have enjoyed other Hamilton works.
4/5
For more Hamiltonian discussion and insight, checkout The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society...
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
All of three novels give the reader a wonderful insight into England in the 1920s and 1930s, in particular the highly delineated class structure. It is class-based assumptions that enable anti-hero Ernest Ralph Gorse to successfully hoodwink those he encounters. The best book of the three is Mr. Stimpson And Mr. Gorse (1953). Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce and her Reading-based companions are wonderful - and hilarious. Gorse's early years are entertainingly evoked in The West Pier (1951). As a Hove-based reader I particularly enjoyed this book. The final book Unknown Assailant (1955), is less successful but still has its moments.
I wish Hamilton could have lived long enough to write more Gorse novels. He hints at what is to come but alas we will never know exactly how it would have all ended for our anti-hero. Despite this, I heartily recommend these novels. Especially for those who have enjoyed other Hamilton works.
4/5
For more Hamiltonian discussion and insight, checkout The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society...
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
December 29, 2020
I loved all three parts of this story of Ralph Gorse. We follow him in his life's work of manipulating the feelings of other's - particularly women - as much for his own enjoyment as for the money he embezzles from them.
We start with him at school where he deliberately causes accusations to fly and fists to be thrown for no reason other than to enjoy the fallout. Describing one of these incidents Hamilton uses a description of boys leaping into the fray which had me crying with laughter,
"And you'd better not accuse me either, " said another boy named Roberts, perceiving and rushing and with all his belongings towards the glorious Yukon of quarrelling which Kerr had discovered.
We then meet him at 18 charming the vain but naive Esther Downes, again at 25 defrauding the vacuous and self-important 41 year old Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce (the narrative of which shows that nothing ever changes as this is just an analogue version of the Nigerian online dating scams) and finally at 30 where his powers of seduction are waning and he takes to cruelty when he realises the "silly" barmaid Ivy is not fooled in by him.
More lighthearted than his other work (despite being based on the serial killer Neville Heath), The Gorse Trilogy is a thoroughly enjoyable read with memorable, if somewhat archetypal, characters.
We start with him at school where he deliberately causes accusations to fly and fists to be thrown for no reason other than to enjoy the fallout. Describing one of these incidents Hamilton uses a description of boys leaping into the fray which had me crying with laughter,
"And you'd better not accuse me either, " said another boy named Roberts, perceiving and rushing and with all his belongings towards the glorious Yukon of quarrelling which Kerr had discovered.
We then meet him at 18 charming the vain but naive Esther Downes, again at 25 defrauding the vacuous and self-important 41 year old Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce (the narrative of which shows that nothing ever changes as this is just an analogue version of the Nigerian online dating scams) and finally at 30 where his powers of seduction are waning and he takes to cruelty when he realises the "silly" barmaid Ivy is not fooled in by him.
More lighthearted than his other work (despite being based on the serial killer Neville Heath), The Gorse Trilogy is a thoroughly enjoyable read with memorable, if somewhat archetypal, characters.
March 8, 2025
I've always been a big fan of Patrick Hamilton's work and have enjoyed all of his books. Sadly, this one (actually three novels squeezed into one) was a bit of a letdown. Similar to 20,00 Streets Under The Sky, the three novels have been turned into one because they focus on the same characters. In this instance, just one character, the rather marvellous Ralph Ernest Gorse. He is a cad and a bounder, almost certainly a high functioning psychopath, and the three novels follow his nefarious exploits. The biggest problem with the novels is that they're essentially the same story told three times. Gorse meets a woman, manipulates and seduces her, then swindles her life savings.
The West Pier (1952)
This is by far the best of the three. This one actually feels more like a novel and provides early chapters about his childhood, his school days, and his early forays into criminality. The book eventually jumps ahead to when Gorse is a young man of 18 and living in Brighton. Here, with two of his friends (Ryan and Bell), they meet Esther and Gertrude. Esther is beautiful and likes Ryan and vice versa. But Gorse is more confident, asking her out while Ryan falters, and she is prone (one of the themes of the book) to be impressed by Gorse being upper middle-class and educated. She is even more impressed by his sexually secure nature, his indifference, his apparent sophistication. And yet she finds Ryan more physically attractive. She begins to date both these young men before Gorse manipulates her into viewing Ryan as a threat. It's a rather lightweight story but does a good job of setting up the character of Gorse. Otherwise, it's a little meandering and quaint, never really going anywhere that interesting (we already know that Gorse is a con-man and is going to fleece her). Hamilton clearly has a certain venom for beautiful girls who place great importance in men who exhibit higher class, status, education. The book is very dated in that sense, everyone obsessed with their rank in the social order. Esther allows herself to be seduced by a man who is less attractive to her than Ryan purely because he combines high status with self-assurance. Had this book been written today, it would probably focus on women and their noted attraction to the bad-boy. Gorse has just enough danger about him to make him more intriguing than Ryan. And she comes across as ultimately naive and even a little complicit in her own downfall.
The book is very readable and by far the best of these three. There is an exuberance in the characters, a youthful excitement that permeates, even from the cold and aloof Gorse who openly acknowledges that he's new to the game of confidence trickery. We're essentially seeing him learn his trade. I was enjoying reading this but was a little disappointed by the damp squib ending. It all felt a little inconsequential.
Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953)
Literally more of the same here. Gorse is now a little older and residing in Reading. He takes on the character of a first world war veteran and focuses his attention on an older woman named Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce. She also has the attention of a man named Stimpson (hence the title) but he is, it seemed to me, somewhat insignificant to events. And so yeah, we get more of the same. This time it's a betting swindle (rather than a car in the first book) and it goes along almost identically, with all the same beats, and all the same outcomes. I really didn't get much from this.
Unknown Assailant (1955)
Then finally a much shorter novel (a third of the other two) which has yet another identical set-up. Gorse is now over thirty and seduces a barmaid called Ivy. Very much the same story as before though this time Gorse passes himself off as nobility and goes by the name The Honourable Gerald Claridge. I was really struggling with this one and found it quite dull. There is a slight opportunity to touch on Gorse's sexuality (he likes to tie women up) which also had a brief mention in the first book where he does this to a little girl. But it never really goes anywhere and Hamilton only allows himself to hint and nudge. So we basically just get more of the same here.
I love Hamilton's writing but these final novels didn't quite live up to what had gone before. The West Pier is the best of the three and worth reading but the others can be skipped (unless you want the full character study). Some of his writing (especially in The West Pier) is lovely, very smooth and accomplished, but there are times when it feels like he could have removed so much. For example, in The West Pier there's a whole section where Ryan gets stood up by Esther so Gertrude arrives to tell him and they spend an evening playing arcade games. This adds almost nothing and despite being fun to read, by the end of the book, you do wonder why he wasted time on this, and many other intricate niceties. I suppose it helps to build the world but It's all for the sake of a rather basic story. Anyway, I enjoyed the first book (a little) but found the second two less interesting. Hamilton's writing is always good but the content is ultimately very slight in my opinion. Never mind.
The West Pier (1952)
This is by far the best of the three. This one actually feels more like a novel and provides early chapters about his childhood, his school days, and his early forays into criminality. The book eventually jumps ahead to when Gorse is a young man of 18 and living in Brighton. Here, with two of his friends (Ryan and Bell), they meet Esther and Gertrude. Esther is beautiful and likes Ryan and vice versa. But Gorse is more confident, asking her out while Ryan falters, and she is prone (one of the themes of the book) to be impressed by Gorse being upper middle-class and educated. She is even more impressed by his sexually secure nature, his indifference, his apparent sophistication. And yet she finds Ryan more physically attractive. She begins to date both these young men before Gorse manipulates her into viewing Ryan as a threat. It's a rather lightweight story but does a good job of setting up the character of Gorse. Otherwise, it's a little meandering and quaint, never really going anywhere that interesting (we already know that Gorse is a con-man and is going to fleece her). Hamilton clearly has a certain venom for beautiful girls who place great importance in men who exhibit higher class, status, education. The book is very dated in that sense, everyone obsessed with their rank in the social order. Esther allows herself to be seduced by a man who is less attractive to her than Ryan purely because he combines high status with self-assurance. Had this book been written today, it would probably focus on women and their noted attraction to the bad-boy. Gorse has just enough danger about him to make him more intriguing than Ryan. And she comes across as ultimately naive and even a little complicit in her own downfall.
The book is very readable and by far the best of these three. There is an exuberance in the characters, a youthful excitement that permeates, even from the cold and aloof Gorse who openly acknowledges that he's new to the game of confidence trickery. We're essentially seeing him learn his trade. I was enjoying reading this but was a little disappointed by the damp squib ending. It all felt a little inconsequential.
Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953)
Literally more of the same here. Gorse is now a little older and residing in Reading. He takes on the character of a first world war veteran and focuses his attention on an older woman named Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce. She also has the attention of a man named Stimpson (hence the title) but he is, it seemed to me, somewhat insignificant to events. And so yeah, we get more of the same. This time it's a betting swindle (rather than a car in the first book) and it goes along almost identically, with all the same beats, and all the same outcomes. I really didn't get much from this.
Unknown Assailant (1955)
Then finally a much shorter novel (a third of the other two) which has yet another identical set-up. Gorse is now over thirty and seduces a barmaid called Ivy. Very much the same story as before though this time Gorse passes himself off as nobility and goes by the name The Honourable Gerald Claridge. I was really struggling with this one and found it quite dull. There is a slight opportunity to touch on Gorse's sexuality (he likes to tie women up) which also had a brief mention in the first book where he does this to a little girl. But it never really goes anywhere and Hamilton only allows himself to hint and nudge. So we basically just get more of the same here.
I love Hamilton's writing but these final novels didn't quite live up to what had gone before. The West Pier is the best of the three and worth reading but the others can be skipped (unless you want the full character study). Some of his writing (especially in The West Pier) is lovely, very smooth and accomplished, but there are times when it feels like he could have removed so much. For example, in The West Pier there's a whole section where Ryan gets stood up by Esther so Gertrude arrives to tell him and they spend an evening playing arcade games. This adds almost nothing and despite being fun to read, by the end of the book, you do wonder why he wasted time on this, and many other intricate niceties. I suppose it helps to build the world but It's all for the sake of a rather basic story. Anyway, I enjoyed the first book (a little) but found the second two less interesting. Hamilton's writing is always good but the content is ultimately very slight in my opinion. Never mind.
August 14, 2012
Three Gorse novels in one volume. You all know Tom Ripley, will Gorse is similar to the Patricia Highsmith character except for the fact he's a low-rent version of that character. Highsmith must have read these books before she wrote the Ripley books.
Patrick Hamlton is the London poet of the pub world. He picks up on their loser aspect and goes even more on a lower loser level. Gorse is a man who haunts and swindle the lonely women who hang out in such pubs, during the war years in London. A remarkable read on a psychopath on the loose, which in turn is an incredible portrait of the UK during the height of World War 2.
Patrick Hamlton is the London poet of the pub world. He picks up on their loser aspect and goes even more on a lower loser level. Gorse is a man who haunts and swindle the lonely women who hang out in such pubs, during the war years in London. A remarkable read on a psychopath on the loose, which in turn is an incredible portrait of the UK during the height of World War 2.
May 26, 2019
Description: In Ernest Ralph Gorse, Patrick Hamilton creates one of fiction’s most captivating anti-heroes, whose heartlessness and lack of scruple are matched only by the inventiveness and panache with which he swindles his victims. With great deftness and precision Hamilton exposes how his dupes’ own naivete, snobbery or greed make them perfect targets. These three novels are shot through with the brooding menace and sense of bleak inevitability so characteristic of the author. There is also vivid satire and caustic humour.
Gorse is thought to be based on the real-life murderer Neville Heath, hanged in 1946.
Patrick Hamilton was born in 1904, and achieved early success as a novelist and playwright, his first novel published in his early twenties. He wrote several other novels and a play, Rope, before he was thirty. Both Rope and another play, Gaslight, were adapted for the big screen, the former by Alfred Hitchcock. His novels include Craven House, The Midnight Bell, The Siege of Pleasure, The Plains of Cement (a trilogy later published together under the title Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky), Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude. He died in 1962, aged fifty-eight, alcoholism undoubtedly a factor in his early death.
"Gorse, the Tempter". Part 1 of 6 of "The Charmer", based on Patrick Hamilton's "Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse". Starring Nigel Havers as the psychopathic gigolo Ralph Gorse, Bernard Hepton, Rosemary Leach, and Fiona Fullerton.
Gorse is thought to be based on the real-life murderer Neville Heath, hanged in 1946.
Patrick Hamilton was born in 1904, and achieved early success as a novelist and playwright, his first novel published in his early twenties. He wrote several other novels and a play, Rope, before he was thirty. Both Rope and another play, Gaslight, were adapted for the big screen, the former by Alfred Hitchcock. His novels include Craven House, The Midnight Bell, The Siege of Pleasure, The Plains of Cement (a trilogy later published together under the title Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky), Hangover Square and The Slaves of Solitude. He died in 1962, aged fifty-eight, alcoholism undoubtedly a factor in his early death.
"Gorse, the Tempter". Part 1 of 6 of "The Charmer", based on Patrick Hamilton's "Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse". Starring Nigel Havers as the psychopathic gigolo Ralph Gorse, Bernard Hepton, Rosemary Leach, and Fiona Fullerton.
August 10, 2015
Vol 1- 'The West Pier'. A young sociopath takes advantage of the gullibility of nice, stupid people. Nothing goes wrong to disrupt his scheme. The people never follow-up on their instinctive distrust of him. After a torturous depiction of the steps of the confidence game, I feel little pity for the victim,as far her monetary loss; maybe she'll wise up for any future encounters with scumbags.When a very poor person loses their savings it is a tragedy, and I did recognize and feel that. The real tragedy is that young love was killed, since it was necessary for Gorse, the con man/sociopath, to break up a budding love affair in order to steal the girl's savings. Gorse takes great pleasure in this, in seeing love and innocence die. He loves the feeling of power that gives him. Hamilton conveys the intensity that sociopaths put into their schemes; he is really teaching something about this character type, and the limits they'll go to for power over the weak.
The desperate nature of snobbery is also a major theme. The sociopath Gorse, manipulates his victim, a poor shop-girl, by acting the part of the gentleman. The victim willingly participates in her own victimization in the hopes that the con man really loves her and will 'save' her from the shop and the slum. Hamilton repeatedly uses the phrase that Esther, the con victim, wants to 'better herself.' This is a phrase that many people use with pride. Better almost always means to be rich or have a better(paying) job.
Hamilton is disgusted by the notion that to have more money is to be better, and is disgusted by the depths that this notion has infected the poor, as well as the rich. He considers it the ultimate in caddishness, and it is. This is what this great novel is essentially about, and what gives it greater dimension and insight than typical noir, where the world is composed of predators and prey, and the results leave you feeling the emptiness of that view, where all the sex, deception and death, ultimately, amount to morbid sensationalism.Hamilton uses a noir structure to write a novel about class, snobbery, and the psychological prisons of those things.
Vol.2-'Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse'. Vol 1 was tragedy, and Gorse's thoughts and deeds were pure evil. His desire was more than a money con, it was to kill innocence and young love. It was hard to sympathize with the victim's stupidity and gullibility,but their loss was tragic. Stealing from the very poor is worse than stealing from the rich. In novels at least, stealing from the rich and even the snobbish middle class is great. Far worse than losing money, Gorse killed the love between two young people with his anonymous letters and constant slimy innuendos.
Vol 2 is brilliant satire and comedy. Gorse becomes more of a trickster as Hamilton sets up the upper middle class, middle-aged marks as petty, ignorant buffoons. I find myself cheering Gorse on. I don't see why Hamilton readers say this trilogy is inferior to his other work, probably because it has a crime story element to it, and they feel obliged to denigrate 'genre' fiction. There's good writing and bad writing so why waste your breath trying to categorize things.
Here's one of many great passages: "Paradoxically enough, seen in a certain light the Plumleigh-Bruce tribe, though snobbish,is not snobbish--either monetarily or socially. It is too complacent to be so.
"It will talk about people not coming, or (worse still) coming out of the top drawer--it is drawer-conscious to an agonising or revolting degree--and yet remains, in many ways, not snobbish.
"Towards the industrial lower classes it is not even snobbish in any way.Its emotions towards these are those simply of bitter class hatred. Towards the agricultural lower classes its attitude is condescending and patriarchal rather than snobbish: towards the middle trading classes it is merely disdainful: and towards the upper class--which it meets occasionally at bazaars, fetes, flower- shows etc.--its feelings are strangely neutral. It does not really think about the upper classes--it does not compare itself with it, and, while vaguely revering it,makes little or no attempt to enter it or mix with it."
Drawer-conscious!
As in vol.1, the crime/noir/con theme is just a vehicle for the larger theme of petty hatreds, ignorance, frustration and the desire to escape all that. Hamilton is a great master.
Vol 3.- 'Unknown Assailant.' Lacks the depth and detail of the first two but follows the same formula: it's 100 pages shorter so maybe it's a draft version. I was expecting to read about Gorse's failure. I wanted to see him in a basement room, with a needle and a spoon. In the first two volumes Hamilton hinted that Gorse would swing. I presume only murder and treason got death sentences so I was expecting a murder in the last volume. Instead, Gorse drives away untouched as he did before.
The desperate nature of snobbery is also a major theme. The sociopath Gorse, manipulates his victim, a poor shop-girl, by acting the part of the gentleman. The victim willingly participates in her own victimization in the hopes that the con man really loves her and will 'save' her from the shop and the slum. Hamilton repeatedly uses the phrase that Esther, the con victim, wants to 'better herself.' This is a phrase that many people use with pride. Better almost always means to be rich or have a better(paying) job.
Hamilton is disgusted by the notion that to have more money is to be better, and is disgusted by the depths that this notion has infected the poor, as well as the rich. He considers it the ultimate in caddishness, and it is. This is what this great novel is essentially about, and what gives it greater dimension and insight than typical noir, where the world is composed of predators and prey, and the results leave you feeling the emptiness of that view, where all the sex, deception and death, ultimately, amount to morbid sensationalism.Hamilton uses a noir structure to write a novel about class, snobbery, and the psychological prisons of those things.
Vol.2-'Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse'. Vol 1 was tragedy, and Gorse's thoughts and deeds were pure evil. His desire was more than a money con, it was to kill innocence and young love. It was hard to sympathize with the victim's stupidity and gullibility,but their loss was tragic. Stealing from the very poor is worse than stealing from the rich. In novels at least, stealing from the rich and even the snobbish middle class is great. Far worse than losing money, Gorse killed the love between two young people with his anonymous letters and constant slimy innuendos.
Vol 2 is brilliant satire and comedy. Gorse becomes more of a trickster as Hamilton sets up the upper middle class, middle-aged marks as petty, ignorant buffoons. I find myself cheering Gorse on. I don't see why Hamilton readers say this trilogy is inferior to his other work, probably because it has a crime story element to it, and they feel obliged to denigrate 'genre' fiction. There's good writing and bad writing so why waste your breath trying to categorize things.
Here's one of many great passages: "Paradoxically enough, seen in a certain light the Plumleigh-Bruce tribe, though snobbish,is not snobbish--either monetarily or socially. It is too complacent to be so.
"It will talk about people not coming, or (worse still) coming out of the top drawer--it is drawer-conscious to an agonising or revolting degree--and yet remains, in many ways, not snobbish.
"Towards the industrial lower classes it is not even snobbish in any way.Its emotions towards these are those simply of bitter class hatred. Towards the agricultural lower classes its attitude is condescending and patriarchal rather than snobbish: towards the middle trading classes it is merely disdainful: and towards the upper class--which it meets occasionally at bazaars, fetes, flower- shows etc.--its feelings are strangely neutral. It does not really think about the upper classes--it does not compare itself with it, and, while vaguely revering it,makes little or no attempt to enter it or mix with it."
Drawer-conscious!
As in vol.1, the crime/noir/con theme is just a vehicle for the larger theme of petty hatreds, ignorance, frustration and the desire to escape all that. Hamilton is a great master.
Vol 3.- 'Unknown Assailant.' Lacks the depth and detail of the first two but follows the same formula: it's 100 pages shorter so maybe it's a draft version. I was expecting to read about Gorse's failure. I wanted to see him in a basement room, with a needle and a spoon. In the first two volumes Hamilton hinted that Gorse would swing. I presume only murder and treason got death sentences so I was expecting a murder in the last volume. Instead, Gorse drives away untouched as he did before.
September 30, 2020
Of the three novels I liked The West Pier best, and it deserves 5 stars. The other two novels were as repetitive as the fictional Gorse's crimes.
April 6, 2012
A crime novel written entirely by a misanthrope, where absolutely everyone is an ass and usually not even a well meaning ones at that. I read the entire trilogy at once which I think was a mistake, as while just reading one novel would have made the whole banality of evil seem clever after three it was a crushing bore.
October 18, 2021
Obviously written late in the author's life, there are parts of each of the stories in this trilogy which seem like drunken placeholders. In those days clever people wrote literature when lonely and remose, rather than posting for attention on social media. That said, the hypnotic Hamilton magic is regularly present and things are never less than gripping.
March 19, 2013
On British TV we had a series called "The Charmer" where a deserter from WW2 army pretends to be injured RAF personnel - he had met up with a drunken RAF chap and left him on the beach after exchanging clothes, the RAF chap drowned.
Gorse meets up and takes advantage of females. The name of the character was Ernest Ralph Gorse known as Ralph.
He even marries but arranges for their home to burn down while they are away. Unfortunately his wife returned without his knowledge and dies.
The fabuluous actress Rosemary Leach was also a lover who he cheats and steals from.
There were lots of twists and turns and in the end he dies. We hear him say "Don't hurt me, Old Boy" as the noose is put around his neck.
The TV series was loosely based on the The Gorse Trilogy. There were lots of simularities and I have to say here I preferred the TV version which had two dvd discs.
The Trilogy has three books. West Pier, Mr Stimson and Mr Gorse and the Unknown Assailant.
The first and second books are similar to the TV Series but the third seems as if it was written by someone who had never heard of Ernest Ralph Gorse.
He had tied one girl up and left her in the countryside. She frees herself and meets a Post Boy with his bicycle who rescues her and gets her eventually home to her Aunt. Not to her father who Mr. Gorse has robbed.
Oddly Gorse never gets mentioned again.
The end of the third book seems to be the end of some other book. It isn't.
I have found from reviews that in between writing the first two books and the third the author's alcholism had caught up with him.
The trial, sentencing and hanging of Ernest Ralph Gorse just does not appear in the book.
All the time you watched the TV series you were waiting for Gorse to get his comeuppance but hoping sort of that he would get away with it again. Most disappointing to find the trial etc was not in the Trilogy.
One wonders if the first two books were published but that pages of the third book were lost and that it was cadged together from other written by the author.
I suppose if I had read the books first and then watched the TV series then I would have felt the story completed. I definitely didn't feel that after reading the books.
As a book -the first two books make sense apart from the ending. Please bear this mind if you have seen the tv series first.
I loved the TV Series starring Nigel Havers. He was totally believable in the part.
Gorse meets up and takes advantage of females. The name of the character was Ernest Ralph Gorse known as Ralph.
He even marries but arranges for their home to burn down while they are away. Unfortunately his wife returned without his knowledge and dies.
The fabuluous actress Rosemary Leach was also a lover who he cheats and steals from.
There were lots of twists and turns and in the end he dies. We hear him say "Don't hurt me, Old Boy" as the noose is put around his neck.
The TV series was loosely based on the The Gorse Trilogy. There were lots of simularities and I have to say here I preferred the TV version which had two dvd discs.
The Trilogy has three books. West Pier, Mr Stimson and Mr Gorse and the Unknown Assailant.
The first and second books are similar to the TV Series but the third seems as if it was written by someone who had never heard of Ernest Ralph Gorse.
He had tied one girl up and left her in the countryside. She frees herself and meets a Post Boy with his bicycle who rescues her and gets her eventually home to her Aunt. Not to her father who Mr. Gorse has robbed.
Oddly Gorse never gets mentioned again.
The end of the third book seems to be the end of some other book. It isn't.
I have found from reviews that in between writing the first two books and the third the author's alcholism had caught up with him.
The trial, sentencing and hanging of Ernest Ralph Gorse just does not appear in the book.
All the time you watched the TV series you were waiting for Gorse to get his comeuppance but hoping sort of that he would get away with it again. Most disappointing to find the trial etc was not in the Trilogy.
One wonders if the first two books were published but that pages of the third book were lost and that it was cadged together from other written by the author.
I suppose if I had read the books first and then watched the TV series then I would have felt the story completed. I definitely didn't feel that after reading the books.
As a book -the first two books make sense apart from the ending. Please bear this mind if you have seen the tv series first.
I loved the TV Series starring Nigel Havers. He was totally believable in the part.
February 22, 2009
This review is of only the first of the Gorse trilogy, Patrick Hamilton's (1904-1962) "The West Pier." In her biography of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt coined the phrase "the banality of evil." Eichmann's evil may have been banal, but it took place on a grand scale. Most evil, like the evil described in Hamilton's novel, is terribly small. Here we have a character, Ernest Ralph Gorse, who expends considerable effort to destroy a budding relationship between two young acquaintences and to steal sixty-five pounds from a rather naive young woman. Why? Just to prove to himself that he can. His actions have nothing to do with love or lust or even a need for money. Instead, they are about asserting control over others' lives. What results is a chilling story of a young woman, and her would-be boyfriend, who are completely duped. I found myself almost yelling at Esther Downes, "Don't do it! Talk openly to Ryan about the mysterious anonymous letters! Don't believe all these clever but far-fetched stories!" What troubles this reader even more is the sense that the narrative voice dispassionately identifies with Gorse more than with his victims. There is even this interesting suggestion toward the end: "In fact, Gorse had he not been what he was, might have been a highly successful novelist" (p. 223). Is Gorse just Hamilton's alter ego? I read on to the second of the trilogy . . . but not before first seeking refuge from the smallness of evil in a few other books.
March 1, 2016
Truthfully, I don't think all three of these novellas needed to be written, as the stores are all more or less the same with different locations and circumstances. Despite this, I still made it all the way through the 600 pages due to Hamilton's constant incredible wit and mastery of storytelling. Certainly, Ernest Ralph Gorse is a fantastic character, but what I always have loved about Patrick Hamilton is his ability to craft such a vivid world for his characters who each have their own perfectly distinct personalities. Each of Mr. Gorse's "crime scenes" are fantastically incisive, and although the stories are all very similar (by the author's own admission) the new victims bring a freshness to Gorse's otherwise repetitive crimes. At this point, I've read a large chunk of Hamilton's work, and I still feel that Twenty Thousand Streets is my favorite, followed closely by Hangover Square.
March 10, 2015
Entertaining but not Patrick Hamilton's best. It took me a year to get through almost 700 pages. The West Pier was the best of the three. After that Hamilton was only really repeating himself. Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse was entertaining as an attack on snobbery, but Unknown Assailant - despite being mercifully short - just dragged on and on. In fact the whole book is a little too long winded. I would've liked to have seen Gorse get his comeuppance, but instead we get three tales of him robbing different women and getting away with it.
Currently reading
June 8, 2009Wonderful insight into the UK inthe 20's and how little things have changed!!! Loved the geography as know the areas mentioned so well and the closet snobbery. The first volume, The WEst Pier, thought I had read it before or seen the film - it was so familiar and you knew exactly what was going to happen, but the Second, Mr Simpson etc is so much better. Gorse reminds me of The Cad written by Arnold Bennett, but not as sympathetic a character.
September 13, 2013
Not as compelling as his Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky trilogy, because there are no really likable characters. Gorse is a sociopath if not a psychopath. His victims are gullible to such an extent that they are unsympathetic.
September 27, 2020
The third book of the trilogy wasn’t quite what I was expecting. It was a sort of concentrated and lighter version of the previous two books. But still very entertaining.
October 31, 2016
I note that I have read only 'Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse' in a separate and presumably now no longer listed Penguin edition. I don't think I'll be reading the other two for some time.
My responses to Hamilton's expose[and is there any way of including accents in entering text here?] of nastiness and middle-class pretentiousness are ambivalent. On the one hand, it's an easy pleasure to enjoy the way he uses Ernest Ralph Gorse to take down and take apart the 'rich, regal, mouthy, throaty, fruity, haughty and objectionable' Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce, her dreadful taste exhibited by the gnomes of her pebble-dashed residence in Sispara Road in Reading, 'Glen Alan', with the silken doll in its vast crinoline that covers the telephone in her bedroom, and her disgusting snobbery that exploits and abuses the simple goodness of her 'Oirish' maid, Mary McGinnis; on the other, Hamilton is utterly without compassion for the woman's vulnerability and loneliness, offering her the chance for redemption after she is humiliated, but denying her that opportunity as her former manners return to her at full strength after six months in Worthing.
While I acknowledge that the general nastiness of this bitter satire is not unrealistic, not untrue to life, it's not something I find comfortable (which I'm clearly not intended to, a fact I also acknowledge), nor - to use a phrase I'm slightly startled to find myself deploying - morally healthy. Hamilton's unrelenting cynicism is pretty hard to take and towards the end of the novel I found myself recalling more and more my reaction to the end of 'A Handful of Dust', which I read when I was 17, and which put me off attempting another Evelyn Waugh for about 25 years.
Well, all this says more about me than the novel. Objectively, 'Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse' is a thoroughly well sustained novel in terms of style and plot. The 15 Parts, each with its focusing title and each divided into 3 chapters, enables the reader to enjoy following the conventionally linear story, varied by little backstories and occasional time-shifts designed either to anticipate or cause suspense by delaying the forward momentum. Set pieces in 'The Friar' or 'Glen Alan' or in Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce's diary, or even the diatribe against the emergence of the motor-car, are entertainingly managed. The phrasing matches the author's incisive (and merciless) analysis of the English middle-classes. His pen is his scalpel.
However, to extend that image, it strikes me that the author is also a vivisectionist, and, what is more, he is just having a good old root around in the bodies of his subjects, and, having found a malignant tumour, merely observes it, leaves it where it is, closes up and lets the body fester. And it's that that makes me feel unsettled by this novel.
Which in turn raises the question of whether a novel, or any work of art, should set out to redeem or present a more hopeful view of humanity than one which leaves one of its characters mouthing off about Generals on the 'hopeless and helpless seafront' in Worthing. Well, if reality suggests mankind is beyond help, why should one present it otherwise? But I don't think I have to like being reminded of it, even if I can admire the skill with which it is presented to me.
My responses to Hamilton's expose[and is there any way of including accents in entering text here?] of nastiness and middle-class pretentiousness are ambivalent. On the one hand, it's an easy pleasure to enjoy the way he uses Ernest Ralph Gorse to take down and take apart the 'rich, regal, mouthy, throaty, fruity, haughty and objectionable' Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce, her dreadful taste exhibited by the gnomes of her pebble-dashed residence in Sispara Road in Reading, 'Glen Alan', with the silken doll in its vast crinoline that covers the telephone in her bedroom, and her disgusting snobbery that exploits and abuses the simple goodness of her 'Oirish' maid, Mary McGinnis; on the other, Hamilton is utterly without compassion for the woman's vulnerability and loneliness, offering her the chance for redemption after she is humiliated, but denying her that opportunity as her former manners return to her at full strength after six months in Worthing.
While I acknowledge that the general nastiness of this bitter satire is not unrealistic, not untrue to life, it's not something I find comfortable (which I'm clearly not intended to, a fact I also acknowledge), nor - to use a phrase I'm slightly startled to find myself deploying - morally healthy. Hamilton's unrelenting cynicism is pretty hard to take and towards the end of the novel I found myself recalling more and more my reaction to the end of 'A Handful of Dust', which I read when I was 17, and which put me off attempting another Evelyn Waugh for about 25 years.
Well, all this says more about me than the novel. Objectively, 'Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse' is a thoroughly well sustained novel in terms of style and plot. The 15 Parts, each with its focusing title and each divided into 3 chapters, enables the reader to enjoy following the conventionally linear story, varied by little backstories and occasional time-shifts designed either to anticipate or cause suspense by delaying the forward momentum. Set pieces in 'The Friar' or 'Glen Alan' or in Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce's diary, or even the diatribe against the emergence of the motor-car, are entertainingly managed. The phrasing matches the author's incisive (and merciless) analysis of the English middle-classes. His pen is his scalpel.
However, to extend that image, it strikes me that the author is also a vivisectionist, and, what is more, he is just having a good old root around in the bodies of his subjects, and, having found a malignant tumour, merely observes it, leaves it where it is, closes up and lets the body fester. And it's that that makes me feel unsettled by this novel.
Which in turn raises the question of whether a novel, or any work of art, should set out to redeem or present a more hopeful view of humanity than one which leaves one of its characters mouthing off about Generals on the 'hopeless and helpless seafront' in Worthing. Well, if reality suggests mankind is beyond help, why should one present it otherwise? But I don't think I have to like being reminded of it, even if I can admire the skill with which it is presented to me.
October 17, 2018
It’s not often that a book has a note on the front to explain that it is in-fact a whole novel but ‘The West Pier’ did. I’m not sure it needed it, the main story itself was thorough and satisfying, although there was something about it that made it feel a little like backstory or preamble.
‘The West Pier’ is the first novel in the Gorse Trilogy, intended to be the Gorse Quadrilogy but cut short by alcoholism and death. There are plenty of clues (and outright statements) about the proposed trajectory of the books. In each, Gorse is going to embark on riskier plans to humiliate and defraud women and presumably end up caught and hanged. This first book tells of his childhood and first big con.
There’s nothing in the childhood that explains Gorse’s unfeeling behaviour, we meet him at the age of ten with a cold, calculating indifference to other people and a fondness for trickery and manipulation. We are told he quite enjoys mindless army drills and has a fondness for uniforms, implying tendencies towards fascism. It’s also interesting to note that the first ‘trick’ played was by putting one boy’s prize torch into another’s jacket and claiming he stole it - the victim being Jewish.
More disturbing is the incident where he lures a young girl down to a shed, ties her up and takes her money. There are hints about his fondness for tying people up - something that may be developed in other books. Certainly he likes to make women feel silly (and take their money into the bargain).
We then meet him, Ryan and Bell walking along the West Pier of Brighton. Only one of them still lives there but the other two have independently decided to go on holiday before settling down into adult life, they’re eighteen. On the pier they meet pretty Esther and Gertrude, ‘the other one’. There’s a lot of fun with the politics of dating, the complications of having two women for three men and the unfairness that ‘other ones’ always end up together. They banter and chat and sound like utter tits, but the rivalry between Ryan and Gorse is set up. Ryan really has set his eyes on pretty Esther, Gorse has set his eyes on manipulation.
The rest of the book follows Gorse’s efforts to break any fledgling Ryan-Esther couple up and to bag all of Esther’s life-savings and self-worth to boot. On the page, he’s most dislikable when he is most trying to be charming, speaking in the faux-olde-fashioned dialogue favoured by Mr Thwaites in ‘The Slaves of Solitude’ and playing ‘silly ass’ with his monocle.
Of course Gorse gets all of his own way, in painful and pathetic detail. Much like Bob in ‘Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Stars’, you wanted to shout through the page at Esther and tell her she’s being a fool.
The book was a little repetitive, Gorse’s main move to impress was to get her drunk on gin in the Metropole hotel. Indeed, their dates started to sound incredibly tedious, almost as tedious as the dates that Ryan tries to take with her. The most interesting aspect of the book were the times when Gorse slips up and goes to far, the narrator intruding in and warning us that this is a feature of the otherwise meticulous Gorse’s dealings.
I didn’t find the tragedy as strong as in other Hamilton books, and I didn’t find Gorse a likeable enough bastard to be on his side but I’m led to believe the second book plays more for comedy, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Being Patrick Hamilton, it’ll be cringe comedy, he does love his monsters.
Worth a read, but not if you haven’t already read ‘Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Stars’, ‘The Slaves of Solitude’ or ‘Hangover Square’.
Another novel and Gorse is back at it again. His plan is to seduce and manipulate a woman with flattery, a few simple con tricks and headed note paper - just like the first book. He even uses the switcheroo with the car. For a person of criminal genius, Gorse does have a very limited playbook.
This time the victim is a plummy, socially conscious and silly woman called Mrs Plumbleigh-Bruce. She’s a lot less likeable than Esther, the victim of the first book and so the book tries to win the reader over more towards Gorse’s side. It does this by laughing at Plumbleigh-Bruce’s snobbery but in reality appeals to the snobbery of the reader. We are supposed to scorn the pebble-dashed semi-detached with the gnomes outside and the shiny brass ships inside. We are meant to laugh at her silken boudoir of pink silk and her daft diary, We are meant to pity Plumbleigh-Bruce her pretensions, her misuse of words and her outrageous ‘posh’ accent - and we do but it doesn’t leave us feeling very good about ourselves.
Hamilton is at his most nasty, but he is funny. Whether he’s getting in the head of a businessman who fancies himself a poet going through his frequently absurd rhymes, or the other businessman trying in vain to solve a crossword, there is much to laugh at Plumbleigh-Bruce and her suburban ‘top-drawer’ set. They are inflated and ridiculous and we quite like Gorse manipulating them. Or we would, if there was more to Gorse.
Part of the point of the series is an explanation of the banality of evil, part of the trouble with this is that the main character is, well, banal. We discover, and are interested in, how his mind works and his schemes are carried out but we never find out why. He just does it because he enjoys messing with people, testing his skills and getting a little extra money into the bargain.
This is supposed to be Gorse at his pinnacle. After this, he is said to become more self-conscious and less natural in the conning arts and if this is his top, there are surely some bottoms to com because the Plumbleigh-Bruce affair is not one of the greats in criminal history.
The book is well written and amusing, the plot a little repetitive but still engaging and it is an enjoyable read but there’s something faintly poisonous about it that lingers on. It’s also odd how, at the end of the book, Patrick Hamilton has a huge rant about cars and how we are slaves to them. He was nearly killed by a car once, presumably he holds a grudge. We can also presume that Gorse having cars as one of his only interests is meant to reflect badly on him.
The series never having been completed, we won’t see the true downfall of Gorse but I am intrigued to read the next book and see him in his decline. Unfortunately, by all accounts we shall also be seeing Hamilton in his decline also, apparently the next novel reeks of booze. I still look forward to it though.
Gorse is back for the third and final instalment. He’s after swindling another foolish woman and looking to get some money from her nasty, arrogant father as well. In many ways it goes much as the other books have, with Gorse using hints of his unknown wealth, the allure of theatre and a few vague acquaintances to get his way in the door. He also uses a car. It’s different to the other books though as the swindling side of the story happens at breakneck pace with little of the slow accumulation of details we’ve had before.
Having heard that this book is whisky-soaked and rather rushed, I expected this to be the whole book but things did become surprising at the end. Having taken the Dad’s money and now taking the daughter out for the classic Gorse switcheroo, things go wrong. The girl in question if far simpler than previous victims and follows him as he is getting ready to leave her. Unable to carry on as he normally would, he takes her into the middle of nowhere and ties her up. The final two chapters show her being rescued by a all-capable telegram boy and arranging to live with an aunt in Manchester where she establishes a joyful life - giving the book something like a happy ending.
Hamilton was not on form in this book but still managed to whizz through the Gorse story in a fairly entertaining manner. It’s certainly not a must-read, but it’s not an unpleasant couple of hours.
‘The West Pier’ is the first novel in the Gorse Trilogy, intended to be the Gorse Quadrilogy but cut short by alcoholism and death. There are plenty of clues (and outright statements) about the proposed trajectory of the books. In each, Gorse is going to embark on riskier plans to humiliate and defraud women and presumably end up caught and hanged. This first book tells of his childhood and first big con.
There’s nothing in the childhood that explains Gorse’s unfeeling behaviour, we meet him at the age of ten with a cold, calculating indifference to other people and a fondness for trickery and manipulation. We are told he quite enjoys mindless army drills and has a fondness for uniforms, implying tendencies towards fascism. It’s also interesting to note that the first ‘trick’ played was by putting one boy’s prize torch into another’s jacket and claiming he stole it - the victim being Jewish.
More disturbing is the incident where he lures a young girl down to a shed, ties her up and takes her money. There are hints about his fondness for tying people up - something that may be developed in other books. Certainly he likes to make women feel silly (and take their money into the bargain).
We then meet him, Ryan and Bell walking along the West Pier of Brighton. Only one of them still lives there but the other two have independently decided to go on holiday before settling down into adult life, they’re eighteen. On the pier they meet pretty Esther and Gertrude, ‘the other one’. There’s a lot of fun with the politics of dating, the complications of having two women for three men and the unfairness that ‘other ones’ always end up together. They banter and chat and sound like utter tits, but the rivalry between Ryan and Gorse is set up. Ryan really has set his eyes on pretty Esther, Gorse has set his eyes on manipulation.
The rest of the book follows Gorse’s efforts to break any fledgling Ryan-Esther couple up and to bag all of Esther’s life-savings and self-worth to boot. On the page, he’s most dislikable when he is most trying to be charming, speaking in the faux-olde-fashioned dialogue favoured by Mr Thwaites in ‘The Slaves of Solitude’ and playing ‘silly ass’ with his monocle.
Of course Gorse gets all of his own way, in painful and pathetic detail. Much like Bob in ‘Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Stars’, you wanted to shout through the page at Esther and tell her she’s being a fool.
The book was a little repetitive, Gorse’s main move to impress was to get her drunk on gin in the Metropole hotel. Indeed, their dates started to sound incredibly tedious, almost as tedious as the dates that Ryan tries to take with her. The most interesting aspect of the book were the times when Gorse slips up and goes to far, the narrator intruding in and warning us that this is a feature of the otherwise meticulous Gorse’s dealings.
I didn’t find the tragedy as strong as in other Hamilton books, and I didn’t find Gorse a likeable enough bastard to be on his side but I’m led to believe the second book plays more for comedy, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Being Patrick Hamilton, it’ll be cringe comedy, he does love his monsters.
Worth a read, but not if you haven’t already read ‘Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Stars’, ‘The Slaves of Solitude’ or ‘Hangover Square’.
Another novel and Gorse is back at it again. His plan is to seduce and manipulate a woman with flattery, a few simple con tricks and headed note paper - just like the first book. He even uses the switcheroo with the car. For a person of criminal genius, Gorse does have a very limited playbook.
This time the victim is a plummy, socially conscious and silly woman called Mrs Plumbleigh-Bruce. She’s a lot less likeable than Esther, the victim of the first book and so the book tries to win the reader over more towards Gorse’s side. It does this by laughing at Plumbleigh-Bruce’s snobbery but in reality appeals to the snobbery of the reader. We are supposed to scorn the pebble-dashed semi-detached with the gnomes outside and the shiny brass ships inside. We are meant to laugh at her silken boudoir of pink silk and her daft diary, We are meant to pity Plumbleigh-Bruce her pretensions, her misuse of words and her outrageous ‘posh’ accent - and we do but it doesn’t leave us feeling very good about ourselves.
Hamilton is at his most nasty, but he is funny. Whether he’s getting in the head of a businessman who fancies himself a poet going through his frequently absurd rhymes, or the other businessman trying in vain to solve a crossword, there is much to laugh at Plumbleigh-Bruce and her suburban ‘top-drawer’ set. They are inflated and ridiculous and we quite like Gorse manipulating them. Or we would, if there was more to Gorse.
Part of the point of the series is an explanation of the banality of evil, part of the trouble with this is that the main character is, well, banal. We discover, and are interested in, how his mind works and his schemes are carried out but we never find out why. He just does it because he enjoys messing with people, testing his skills and getting a little extra money into the bargain.
This is supposed to be Gorse at his pinnacle. After this, he is said to become more self-conscious and less natural in the conning arts and if this is his top, there are surely some bottoms to com because the Plumbleigh-Bruce affair is not one of the greats in criminal history.
The book is well written and amusing, the plot a little repetitive but still engaging and it is an enjoyable read but there’s something faintly poisonous about it that lingers on. It’s also odd how, at the end of the book, Patrick Hamilton has a huge rant about cars and how we are slaves to them. He was nearly killed by a car once, presumably he holds a grudge. We can also presume that Gorse having cars as one of his only interests is meant to reflect badly on him.
The series never having been completed, we won’t see the true downfall of Gorse but I am intrigued to read the next book and see him in his decline. Unfortunately, by all accounts we shall also be seeing Hamilton in his decline also, apparently the next novel reeks of booze. I still look forward to it though.
Gorse is back for the third and final instalment. He’s after swindling another foolish woman and looking to get some money from her nasty, arrogant father as well. In many ways it goes much as the other books have, with Gorse using hints of his unknown wealth, the allure of theatre and a few vague acquaintances to get his way in the door. He also uses a car. It’s different to the other books though as the swindling side of the story happens at breakneck pace with little of the slow accumulation of details we’ve had before.
Having heard that this book is whisky-soaked and rather rushed, I expected this to be the whole book but things did become surprising at the end. Having taken the Dad’s money and now taking the daughter out for the classic Gorse switcheroo, things go wrong. The girl in question if far simpler than previous victims and follows him as he is getting ready to leave her. Unable to carry on as he normally would, he takes her into the middle of nowhere and ties her up. The final two chapters show her being rescued by a all-capable telegram boy and arranging to live with an aunt in Manchester where she establishes a joyful life - giving the book something like a happy ending.
Hamilton was not on form in this book but still managed to whizz through the Gorse story in a fairly entertaining manner. It’s certainly not a must-read, but it’s not an unpleasant couple of hours.
June 3, 2016
This trilogy tells three episodes in the story of a certain Ernest Ralph Gorse. In The West Pier we meet him as a schoolboy and teenager, then at twenty-five in Mr. Stimpson And Mr.Gorse and again a few years later in "Unknown Assailant". The three episodes form a series, rather than being three inter-linking stories as in his other trilogy, Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky.
He is an unpleasant con man in all three stories, but also an interesting character. His victims are a rather vain and silly girl, an unpleasant older woman and then another silly girl and her unpleasant father. It is difficult to feel sorry for his victims (apart from possibly Ivy in the last story and she gets a happier life than she had before meeting him). Many of them are victims of their own weaknesses as much as Gorse's machinations and some almost deserve to be conned. Patrick Hamilton's outlook was becoming more jaundiced and pessimistic as he got older.
He is an unpleasant con man in all three stories, but also an interesting character. His victims are a rather vain and silly girl, an unpleasant older woman and then another silly girl and her unpleasant father. It is difficult to feel sorry for his victims (apart from possibly Ivy in the last story and she gets a happier life than she had before meeting him). Many of them are victims of their own weaknesses as much as Gorse's machinations and some almost deserve to be conned. Patrick Hamilton's outlook was becoming more jaundiced and pessimistic as he got older.
March 7, 2014
As good an introduction as any to one of the great under-appreciated writers of the twentieth century. Perhaps not as well known as his 'Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky' trilogy, or even 'Hangover Square' or 'Slaves of Solitude', these three novels (two and a half really - the final book, 'Unknown Assailant' is barely 100 pages long) were a pretty loose basis for the excelent 80s TV series 'The Charmer' and recount the misadventures of Ernest Ralph Gorse, a skilled conman who preys on women.
Gorse is a fascinating, multi-layered character (far more so than the tv version - and a million times more than the character from Allan Prior's clumsy, first draft of a novelisation of that series) - a low-rent, low ambition version of Highmsith's Mr Ripley - but the dynamic between Gorse and Mr Stimpson in the middle volume is the real highlight, as two slightly pathetic men (in their own ways) 'battle' for the heart and fortune of an equally pathetic woman.
It's common to say that Hamilton writes beautifully about pubs and alcohol, and he certainly does so in these books but to be honest, he writes beautifully about most things, and this trilogy is no disappointment in that, or any other, respect.
Gorse is a fascinating, multi-layered character (far more so than the tv version - and a million times more than the character from Allan Prior's clumsy, first draft of a novelisation of that series) - a low-rent, low ambition version of Highmsith's Mr Ripley - but the dynamic between Gorse and Mr Stimpson in the middle volume is the real highlight, as two slightly pathetic men (in their own ways) 'battle' for the heart and fortune of an equally pathetic woman.
It's common to say that Hamilton writes beautifully about pubs and alcohol, and he certainly does so in these books but to be honest, he writes beautifully about most things, and this trilogy is no disappointment in that, or any other, respect.
November 10, 2021
A solid three stars for each book in this trilogy. I would recommend reading this, if you have already read Mr Hamilton's previous novels, all of which are superlative. The Gorse novels were his last published works, the poor man by this time in his life suffering from depression and advanced alcoholism. Although not exactly up to par with his earlier work, they still reflect the classic Hamilton style and the second book (Mr Gorse and Mr Stimson) at times soars with his vivid, comic dialogue.
December 5, 2015
Accurate and entertaining portrayal of the mind and methods of a sociopath.
I did feel however that the last book in the trilogy - Unknown Assailant,was going over old ground that had already been covered in The West Pier,they are very similar stories.
I read the 3 stories separately,as I don't think my interest would have held for 600 pages in one go.
I did feel however that the last book in the trilogy - Unknown Assailant,was going over old ground that had already been covered in The West Pier,they are very similar stories.
I read the 3 stories separately,as I don't think my interest would have held for 600 pages in one go.
October 20, 2014
Pure genius...
August 11, 2023
Most people who read this trilogy prefer the longer, middle novel, Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse, even though it really should be called Mrs Plumleigh-Bruce and Mr Gorse. It’s true that Mrs PB does “deserve” her fleecing by The Charmer much more than the poor (in both senses of the word), innocent Esther Downes of The West Pier, and the middle England home counties between the wars skewering is very funny; however I did prefer The West Pier for its sense of place. Brighton has a (20th century) literary tradition, whereas Reading is so nondescript, even with Hamilton’s travails, as to be a Erewhon type of town.
The Unknown Assailant is pretty much a shorter carbon copy of the first two novels, set this time in Fulham, which at the time of both writing and setting was a working class area and not the celeb and banker enclave it is today. However it’s the duller of the three novels, the reader and Gorse going through the motions, very much the Anne Bronte of the three books, or even the Branwell. Ivy is much like a grown-up Esther if she had never been fleeced by Gorse and her father pretty similar to Major Parry from MSAMG. Hamilton seems bored writing it, only wanting to get it over with in 130 pages, Gorse seems to be going through the motions and the reader too.
I much preferred Hamilton’s previous troika, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, the tale of three pub workers/punters, each told from a different perspective. In this trilogy we have an omniscient narrator who tells us not only what’s going on in the minds of the victims, her friends and family and Gorse himself, but also what happens in their futures. This telling not showing gives the books an old fashioned feel and in the end of 750 pages, I was quite sick of Gorse and wanted only for him to get his comeuppance, which never comes about.
The Unknown Assailant is pretty much a shorter carbon copy of the first two novels, set this time in Fulham, which at the time of both writing and setting was a working class area and not the celeb and banker enclave it is today. However it’s the duller of the three novels, the reader and Gorse going through the motions, very much the Anne Bronte of the three books, or even the Branwell. Ivy is much like a grown-up Esther if she had never been fleeced by Gorse and her father pretty similar to Major Parry from MSAMG. Hamilton seems bored writing it, only wanting to get it over with in 130 pages, Gorse seems to be going through the motions and the reader too.
I much preferred Hamilton’s previous troika, Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, the tale of three pub workers/punters, each told from a different perspective. In this trilogy we have an omniscient narrator who tells us not only what’s going on in the minds of the victims, her friends and family and Gorse himself, but also what happens in their futures. This telling not showing gives the books an old fashioned feel and in the end of 750 pages, I was quite sick of Gorse and wanted only for him to get his comeuppance, which never comes about.
January 21, 2024
I’ve given this one star less than the other Patrick Hamilton books I’ve read; it’s still an excellent read, exploring the developing techniques of a conman from his childhood, and the character and fatal flaws of his marks .
In this novel, the narrative voice draws attention to points in the story where outcomes could have been different had the victim not had a particular characteristic or flaw, which adds richness to the novel. There are hilarious takedowns of suburban snobbery and the class system, and, really interestingly, Hamilton seems to be warning us about the rise of the motor car. He’s made me want to research whether this was a common viewpoint at the time.
The two working-class women victims of Gorse are depicted more kindly by Hamilton than his middle-class victim in the second book, and her male acolytes are also vessels through which to take down the vanities of suburban England. One of these characters is attempting to write a war poem, and his attempts culminate hilariously towards the end of the story.
Hamilton is a wonderful writer, and his insights and stories demonstrate how people’s delusions about themselves; hierarchies of status, and obsessions with minutiae haven’t really changed, whilst also offering analysis of how the contexts of them really have changed .
In this novel, the narrative voice draws attention to points in the story where outcomes could have been different had the victim not had a particular characteristic or flaw, which adds richness to the novel. There are hilarious takedowns of suburban snobbery and the class system, and, really interestingly, Hamilton seems to be warning us about the rise of the motor car. He’s made me want to research whether this was a common viewpoint at the time.
The two working-class women victims of Gorse are depicted more kindly by Hamilton than his middle-class victim in the second book, and her male acolytes are also vessels through which to take down the vanities of suburban England. One of these characters is attempting to write a war poem, and his attempts culminate hilariously towards the end of the story.
Hamilton is a wonderful writer, and his insights and stories demonstrate how people’s delusions about themselves; hierarchies of status, and obsessions with minutiae haven’t really changed, whilst also offering analysis of how the contexts of them really have changed .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 13, 2020
The three novels that comprise this trilogy were published in the early years of the 1950s but are set in the late twenties and early thirties which provides Hamilton with the opportunity to write as though to a younger reader for whom those years would have been a lost world. In 'Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse' and 'Unknown Assailant', Hamilton introduces devices that seek to embed Gorse's mean thefts in the context of future, more violent, crimes that were sufficiently notorious to attract the attention of both the press and criminologists. These crimes find no place in the novels, but the device serves to suggest that the (mainly) female victims were luck to have avoided a worse fate. The narrative voice consistently represents the victims as 'silly' and dupes of their own willingness to be dazzled by Gorse's (less than perfect) rendering of the upper class gent. As in all of Hamilton's novels, the pub scenes and the impact of alcohol on character are amongst the most convincing elements of these novels, but they are not the titles that one would choose to press on anyone who has not come across his earlier work.
June 18, 2019
Like most reviewers here I'm sure, I began by reading the wonderful Hangover Square. I picked up The Gorse Trilogy hoping for something not too dissimilar. I really enjoyed the first story in this collection, but felt that Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse and Unknown Assailant were just more of the same. Not only is Gorse a complete ass, but so are all the other characters. There are moments of mirth that really did make me laugh, but I did feel like I slowed down reading this and ploughed through slowly, just to finish it. I didn't want to park it on my 'did not finish' shelf, because I do really like Patrick Hamiliton's writing, and I was hoping that perhaps it might pick up. A word to anyone wanting to give this a go: just read The West Pier.
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July 3, 2024I have considerable respect for some of Patrick Hamilton’s work – “Rope,” “Hangover Square” – but “The Gorse Trilogy” is a very uneven affair. The third novel, “Unknown Assailant,” is reasonably clever, although ultimately inclusive; the middle novel, “Mr Stimpson and Mr Gorse,” develops at a regrettably slow pace through wandering conversations that ramble on far too long for what they have to convey; and the opening novel, “The West Pier,” has the same rambling-on problem along with a plot that’s just plain dull. The title character’s specialty is seducing, cheating, and abandoning naïve women, and his machinations should be a lot more intriguing and dread-inducing than Hamilton manages to make them. Not recommended.
February 19, 2025
Xi everyone, my Nu review:
Whilst I don't give a tuppence what happens to these slags, this Gorse chap is still just too much of a rotter. Rawther. Indeed, not that I mind seeing him take the piss out of these birds. But always sussing things out then waiting for them to go to the loo -- and stuck without a bog roll -- before he runs off, it's just not cricket. Whilst he already has their quids, bobs, crowns, sovereigns, guineas, thrupences, and tuppences in the boot of his lorry, I shouldn't wonder.
This book put me off my Tobbly-woggler and Codshire Codpiece Pasty.
A cad and a bounder, I daresay. He's the sort who'd siphon petrol from your pick-up lorry. They should have told him "sod off, you tosser".
Whilst I don't give a tuppence what happens to these slags, this Gorse chap is still just too much of a rotter. Rawther. Indeed, not that I mind seeing him take the piss out of these birds. But always sussing things out then waiting for them to go to the loo -- and stuck without a bog roll -- before he runs off, it's just not cricket. Whilst he already has their quids, bobs, crowns, sovereigns, guineas, thrupences, and tuppences in the boot of his lorry, I shouldn't wonder.
This book put me off my Tobbly-woggler and Codshire Codpiece Pasty.
A cad and a bounder, I daresay. He's the sort who'd siphon petrol from your pick-up lorry. They should have told him "sod off, you tosser".
June 11, 2020
Patrick Hamilton has been forgotten and he shouldn't have been; personally I prefer him to Graham Greene and his West Pier is every bit as accomplished as Brighton Rock. Unknown Assailant is probably the weakest of the three tales in the trilogy but that is because by this time readers have become accustomed to the modus operandii of Ernest Ralph Gorse. I shall be buying this trilogy for friends for sure.
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