Sweet William

by Beryl Bainbridge

Fontana 1979 film tie-in edition paperback, vg In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Modern Classics, Classics, Roman, Novels, London

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge DBE was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often set among the English working classes. Bainbridge won the Whitbread Award twice and was nominated for the Booker Prize five times. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Bainbridge among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an early Bainbridge, written in 1975. I'm not an expert as the only other I've read by her is the stupendous 'What Harriet Said' - basically in a class of its own.
The opening chapters of this however, are very good - with our heroine Ann falling in love with the William - her symptoms are similar to the flu. Jokes aside - the infatuation she feels, the first heady passions are astutely described and then - for me at least the story falls away as the focus becomes William and his hedonistic lifestyle - or to be more precise his womanizing mania; and I'm just not that interested anymore.
I think Bainbridge didn't yet have the confidence to follow her gut feeling and go with the female story - she does a very convincing interplay with Ann and her mother and also Ann and her cousin Pamela - a certain mean competitiveness between them - which is clearly more fully developed in the later - 'What Harriet...
Nice evocation of 70s London - not a lot else to say. Still worth the 4 stars though for those opening chapters.
Here is an extract from when Ann meets William for the second time - at the local swimming pool.

It was then Ann saw William. He was standing with his hands on his hips, looking up at her. He wore a pair of black swimming trunks and his hair was flat to this head. For one moment Ann stopped breathing and the next she wanted to hide. She thought everyone else was free and undressed, while she was cumbersome and conspicuous in her grey coat and her court shoes. She was even holding a bag it was dangling over the rail, bulky with her documents and Emily's head-band. She almost let go of it. She had never really liked nudity - all that expanse of flesh touched by the grave - unless you'd been away on holiday and had become less obscene. But he looked beautiful, and outlined in that light seemed to waver and coalesce, though she knew it was only the reflection of the glass roof on the water. There was so much noise and movement: the screaming, the splashing, the mouths opening in one great shout, the putty-coloured bodies plunging from the diving board. A wave of sound and light rose up and engulfed her. She felt she was drowning.

I like the description very much - and interesting to note that the review I just wrote on Elizabeth Hazzard's - The Evening of the Holiday - also uses the mesmerizing effect of light and water to capture the feeling/sense - the intoxication of "falling in love".

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘A Quiet Life’ convinced me to take Beryl Bainbridge’ out of the box marked ‘undoubtedly an excellent author, but probably not for me.’ We got along rather well.

And now I have read ‘Sweet William’ we are getting along even better.

I could describe ’Sweet William’ in many ways. Romantic comedy. Social satire. Black comedy. But, for now, let’s just say that it’s a very good book.

Ann’s life seemed to be sailing along rather nicely. She had a good job, as a secretary at the BBC. And she had a fiancé, Gerald, a sensible, successful academic. Gerald had a new job in the USA, and plans were afoot for Ann to join him there once he had settled in.

Her mother doesn’t approve of her lifestyle. Though, as the sixties become the seventies, Ann is less modern than many, her mother is the product of a very different era. That helps to place the story, and its a nice counterbalance to the main storyline.

Gerald has barely left when Ann meets William; a tall, blond, charming playwright. He sweeps her off her feet, and straight into bed. Ann is besotted and she readily agrees to write to Gerald to break off their relationship, to share her home with Willliam, and to giving up her job to look after their relationship, their home, his career.

Warning bells would be ringing for some, but not for Ann.

After all, William had been wonderful when her cousin Pamela came to stay, pregnant and wanting an abortion. Something that was still illegal at the time. He went out of his way to be helpful and supportive.

But then William started to disappear at odd times, and any number of women were making the telephone and the doorbell ring, looking for the elusive William.

It seemed that he charmed every woman he met.

Ann was slow to realise that William was a philanderer, sliding through life on charm, weaving a web of lies and deceit to protect him from the consequences of his actions.

I hoped that Ann would catch on and move on. And I hoped that William would get his just desserts.

This is very much of a story of its time, but it still works because the characters are timeless. There are still Anns and Williams in this world, and I have no doubt at all that similar relationships are being played out.

It’s a simple story, but its eventful, and it carried me along at just the right pace. I had no doubt that the author understood, and she told her tale so well.

There’s intelligence. There’s satire. There’s wit. There’s emotion. And it all works together beautifully.

What I appreciated most was being able to understand Ann’s emotions as she was first besotted and then sadly disappointed.

I’m only disappointed that I’ve read two books by Beryl Bainbridge and neither will fit into my Century of Books. I’ve spotted two books that would fit. I could go back in time to ‘A Weekend With Claude’ or forward in time to’ The Dressmaker’. They’re both in the library, and I’d be quite happy to have another encounter with Beryl …

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Sweet William' by Beryl Bainbridge

4 stars/8 out of 10

I have read several books by Beryl Bainbridge in the past, so was pleased to have the opportunity to read this novel.

'Sweet William' tells the story of Ann, a rather naive young woman, whose life is turned upside down on meeting William, a self declared playwright. The story is told primarily from Ann's point of view, but the reader, again and again, suspects (and eventually knows) just how much she is deluding herself.

Bainbridge writes with wit and verve. I found the account of the harvest festival very funny, and the description of Ann's Christmas with her parents displays Bainbridge's acerbic wit to its full.

Yet Bainbridge still allows us to develop sympathy for many of the characters in the novel.For example, Ann's mother, whilst she has many unsympathetic characteristics, provides several poignant moments.

It was a pleasure to read this book, and I am glad that it has been republished.The section at the end of the book containing photographs of Beryl Bainbridge is a bonus.

Thank you to Open Road Integrated Media and to NetGalley for an ARC.

[Angela Leivesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This black comedy made me laugh and also cringe at the stupidity of the female characters. William is a horror and I often found Ann's gullibility unbelievable before reminding myself that there are Williams out there and I have actually met one of them! Loved the twist at the end.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann is a young woman who works at the BBC in London and when we first meet her she is waving off her fiancé, academic who is flying to America to start a new life. Soon Ann will follow. Ann’s mother is very proud of the new life, less enamoured it would seem of Gerard, the fiancé particularly his carnal desires, in reality than on paper.

I wonder how differently this story would play out if it was set now, and not in the midst of the sexual revolution. Why? Because Ann meets William, a married man who captivates and thrills Ann in a way Gerard never has. William visits Ann’s bed and then cycles off to look after his children while their mother works and has a font of bizarre tales to distract from his frequent absences, the furtive phone calls and crucially his intentions. However William is an important man, he is putting on a play which will tour England, and even though Ann is less than impressed by the play itself, she understands that her role is to support, so out goes the job at the BBC so that she can devote herself to this exceptional man. Oh the irony.

This is not only Ann’s story but in the shadows are other women connected to William, the wife, the mother, her landlady, her cousin and those women who phone up looking for him at odd times of the night and day. It is also the story of Ann’s mother, a woman who lives in Brighton with Ann’s father, a man who seems entirely eclipsed by his indomitable wife, who represents those who lived before the sexual revolution.

Ann felt it was funny that anyone should call Mrs Walton ordinary. It wasn’t an adequate word. She thought of her mother’s piano playing her scheming, her ability to read French, the strength of her convictions, the inflexibility of her dreadful will.

The truth is that when Ann met William, she was woefully unprepared, she’s an unworldly girl who it seems has none of the support that most women today enjoy. Perhaps because the women that knew them both were complicit in covering up William’s fickle ways, his selfishness and his disregard for Ann’s feelings.

She didn’t know enough about men. Her mother said they were brutes, self-absorbed and secretive. But William wasn’t like that: he was open and he loved her and he had forced her to meet his wife.

This love story takes a turn for the worse, as well you might expect but there is plenty of black humour, something that Beryl Bainbridge employs to great effect. To be honest the black humour is made infinitely easier because I don’t think I am the first person to read this book who wants to shake Ann and truly open her eyes to the half-truths she knows. So while I felt a smidgen of sympathy for her plight, I couldn’t believe she couldn’t see what was right in front of her. After all William may have lied but when pushed he really makes the situation very obvious:

‘But Edna needs to look after me. I give her money for the housekeeping… she doesn’t want to be done out of cooking for me. Who am I to deny her that?’

He bent his head humbly. There was a flaw in his argument, she knew, but she couldn’t put it into words. He’d denied Edna everything else; it didn’t’ seem particularly cruel to tell her he didn’t want any food.

The more I read of this author’s work, the more I enjoy it. Beryl Bainbridge is definitely my find of the year with her exceptionally clever writing and yet still immensely readable. This black comedy published in 1975 both conjures up a bygone time and yet, I know that Sweet William still exists, maybe in a slightly different guise, although I suspect this was his true era, when there were plenty of naïve women just waiting to fall for his charms and willing to shake of the older generation’s morals that had protected the majority of previous generations.

I received my copy of Sweet William from the publishers Open Road Integrated Media who are republishing a number of this authors books, this one on 29 November 2016.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I really enjoy Bainbridge’s sharp, often acerbic, short novels, but at other times they just don’t work for me, and I’m afraid this is one that didn’t work. It’s a banal enough tale. Ann is recently engaged but then is swept off her feet by the dynamic and charismatic William and suddenly all the security and certainties of her life are upended. She’s powerless to resist him – and I just couldn’t see why. He’s too much of a caricature to be a sympathetic character (although I understand he’s based on the writer Alan Sharp with whom Bainbridge had a relationship, and, she claims, the character is not exaggerated) and I didn’t feel any empathy for Ann and her plight. Well written, as all Bainbridge’s novels are, but this one missed the mark for me.

[Melissa Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn’t my favorite Bainbridge. While it is written in her distinctive style, with carefully observed detail, I didn’t understand the characters or their motivation. As a result, I wanted to slap the women and run as fast as I could away from the men!

[Marija · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Sweet William, Beryl Bainbridge takes the darkly comedic tone that she previously used in her novel The Bottle Factory Outing and turns it into something even more bitingly ironic and disturbing. This marked change is in part due to the focused subject matter of this novel. The novel’s unassertive protagonist, Ann, finds herself swept up into a bizarre relationship with a playwright, despite being engaged to a professor.

I think the comedy of this novel in part stems from the fact that Ann has somehow caught the attention of two relatively intelligent and academic men, despite the fact that she is relatively dull and mousy in comparison. In some ways, she is very much like Bainbridge’s character Brenda in The Bottle Factory Outing. Essentially, Ann is a soft touch. Yet perhaps it is Ann’s unworldly timidity that makes her an easy target for William’s dominant perceptions and cajoling ways.

Throughout the novel, Ann is described as lofty…someone in a constant state of befuddlement and stubborn confusion. However, this almost dreamlike hypnotic state can’t entirely be attributed to William’s presence alone. Her interactions with her mother and her fiancé Gerald at the novel’s outset also convey that same lack of clearheadedness. While Ann could arguably be described as a naive innocent, her inflexible willfulness undermines her irreproachability.

That said, Ann does experience moments of sudden awakening…moments where she recognizes that something is not right and will act on impulse to correct the situation. However, these steps are only half-heartedly made, since she ultimately finds herself reverting back to and accepting the way things were…the prior dreamlike fantasies preferable to the stark and barren reality she must face.

The story itself can be quite disturbing to the reader, especially considering how easily it was for Ann to fall into this dependent relationship with William. From a psychological standpoint, however, the novel makes for a compelling study, especially considering Bainbridge’s later admission that William’s character was in part modeled after her ex-lover Alan Sharp. Another asset of the book is Bainbridge’s adept use of irony. Her verbal attacks are always on point. Even a baby’s cry is used to maximum effect, yielding a strong final commentary regarding what has come about and what perhaps will come to be.

Copy provided by NetGalley

[Lee Behlman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This knocked me on my ass. More Bainbridge to come.

[Art the Turtle of Amazing Girth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25

Boring, stupid main character
Weird, unrealistic side characters
Plot that goes nowhere

Yep

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all of her novels, Bainbridge presents her characters in Sweet William with an astringent sympathy—she never allows them to appear as other than they are, always revealing themselves vainly comic in their delusions and misapprehensions. Often Bainbridge will maintain a degree of opacity about events and settings so that the characters are more sharply limned, and so that there is another level of readerly misapprehension about what’s really going on.

In Sweet William, there was none of that opacity. Events were stark and the situation clear from beginning to end, though there is a comic zinger at the conclusion, which mitigates a bit the relative slog of Ann’s tortuous relations with the amiably unfaithful playwright William and the resulting difficulties with a status-conscious, middle-class mum who tries to shame Ann into doing the proper thing.

The fiancé she abandons for William is a staid lecturer just moved to the United States, but by novel’s end, there’s reason to believe she might try to reconnect, even as the same development drives William from her for good. Bainbridge’s usual antics and subterfuges don’t play as well in this novel, because it too closely bears resemblance to other, more earnest novels of women seeking to find themselves in the heady 1960s. While the whole did not please as much as I’d hoped, there are scattered throughout a few small, barbed insinuations that drolly illumine activities Ann never even guesses at.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

For her sixth novel, Bainbridge returned to one of her favourite themes - the tension between the old world of traditional English values and Sixties 'permissiveness' (for want of a better word). Although an enticing era and one that was likely a whole lot more exciting to live in than our own of iPhones, JD Wetherspoon and Beyoncé, the 'open-mindedness' of the age was so often an excuse for men in particular to behave very selfishly - and so it proves with the eponymous figure that lends this excellent character study its name. Why the various women in the novel keep on forgiving and returning to the cad at the centre of the book is a mystery to all of us even if most of us have been there to lesser or greater degrees. As with most Bainbridge novels I have read, the opportunity to afford a book a rating of 3 and a half stars would have been welcome.

[zespri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this Virago Classic at the library, and loved it. I had never heard of Beryl Bainbridge but I'll be searching out more of her books after reading this one.

Ann lives and works in London, she has a fiancee and a quiet settled life. Onto the scene bursts William, and Ann's life is turned upside down. Suddenly two worlds collide and Ann, totally besotted, throws caution to the wind, gives up the job, the fiancee and her flat and hitches herself to the bohemian, creative William. A deceptively charming man appears suddenly - and creates havoc.

We all know where this is going to end up, but it is the dialogue that I found quite hilarious. Clever and hilarious.

[Flora F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this slim comedy at a secondhand book shop.
At first I wasn't sure what to make of it...it seems that the author feels disdain for all of her characters and wants her readers to feel the same way. Once I accepted that the story was about lousy and weak-willed loser characters making bad choices (and that the book is satire) I really got into the story.
An odd but funny and mean look at the aftermath of the Sexual Revolution in the 1970s.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this years ago and may dust it down again and re-read. It is a story about a young woman's sexual awakening. I remember the film with Jenny Agutter which I also enjoyed. I like Bainbridge's writing and would read anything she had written in good faith.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good novel. Bainbridge's writing is very good, most descriptive in the small details.

[Luann Ritsema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much of its time but very enjoyable. I wanted to shake Ann all the way through but suspect that's the point. The early Bainbridge is the stuff I really love......

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining blend of comedy and pathos. I've never been disappointed by a Beryl Bainbridge novel.

[Rita · Rating 3 out of 5]

1934-2010. This book 1975
'Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge DBE was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often set among the English working classes.'

The cover quotes a reviewer as saying "A very funny book." I did not find a single sentence in the book to laugh about.

The book portrays well a young woman who doesn't know what she wants in life, who falls for a charmer and gets too emotionally involved with him. And it portrays well the man who is able to charm any number of women and string them along. And all the tricks he uses to do that.

There are definitely many people in both categories, but I found it somewhat sickening to read more and more and still more of this game of charm. It's just so sad that so many women fall for this, and sad that there are so many men that live this way.

ONe goodreader says:
"He’s too much of a caricature to be a sympathetic character (although I understand he’s based on the writer Alan Sharp with whom Bainbridge had a relationship, and, she claims, the character is not exaggerated) "

Wiki:
In the 1990s, Bainbridge turned to historical fiction. These novels continued to be popular with critics, but this time, were also commercially successful.
Every Man for Himself, about the 1912 Titanic disaster,
Master Georgie, set during the Crimean War,
According to Queeney, a fictionalized account of the last years of the life of Samuel Johnson as seen through the eyes of Queeney Thrale, eldest daughter of Henry and Hester Thrale.

Her first novel, Harriet Said..., was rejected by several publishers, one of whom found the central characters "repulsive almost beyond belief". It was eventually published in 1972, four years after her third novel (Another Part of the Wood). She wrote and published seven more novels during the 1970s.

[doreen elixman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann hasn’t lived the worst of lives, her parents had given her an education beyond high school and a car so all she’d had to do is get herself a job and pay for herself to maintain a living. She has not had the best luck at love, though, and she’s really pretty tired of her life that way. So, when William gives a bit of excessive attention, she sort of REALLY takes a bite.

William is the kind of guy that always has the right thing to say about whatever it is he thinks you want to hear. Something at any point that will be of benefit to him as he sees fit, whether it will hurt you or not, he’s got a way to phrase it that makes you feel like an ass if you’d ever questioned him. There are moments of sincerity, of course, but there will always be a note of vindication behind it. He also has several other women he sees, that have also been told the same thing about other women, just a bit different from the other, enough to keep all them guessing should they know each other.

Mrs Walton is overall appalled with her daughter’s behavior, and thinks the ‘creature’ that her daughter is involved with is mad, knocking on windows at all hours of the morning and night, doesn’t his wife have better control of him? Maybe he should see a doctor or go back to his wife!

After getting pregnant, Ann decides to move to a new location with William without asking her mother. Soon, Ann too becomes bewildered with him and wants her old room back.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that this story is based on Beryl Bainbridge's experience of meeting a playwright (Alan Sharpe) with whom she had a daughter. She said if anything she had toned down his character for this novel about Sweet William. Ann meets William just as her fiance, whom she is lukewarm about, goes to America and with William the attraction is immediate. There is a completely whirlwheel feel t the romance and Ann changes herself totally to be a "fit" for William and his life. He is married (twice) and leads Ann a merry dance. This is a man who completely seduces women by bombarding them with his love and need and then withdrawing it, leaving them hungry and craving more. A William type of man is one most women would say they would definately avoid, and yet don't often. Ann's emotions are extreme, she feels jealousy, anger, great love and care and it is like she becomes hooked on the drama. At the same time this book is funny and slyly pokes fun and William and the lengths the women who compete for him go to. So funny but one where you definately feel mean-spirited finding amusement in the misery of others. Well written.

[Ian Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve come to like Bainbridge’s style: the underlying humour beneath the overlying tragedy of her subjects’ lives. But I think Sweet William could unsettle a lot of readers, including her fans. The eponymous William appears anything but sweet except to the unaware women he takes to his heart. It’s a wonder what they see in him.

The story however is seen from the perspective of Ann, a hapless individual who falls for William’s charms and doesn’t seem to find enough momentum to break free of his spell even when she finds doubt and a little conviction. She has few allies, neither in the fictional world and, I suspect, amongst the readers of the novel. Her continued behaviour becomes ever more infuriating and eventually it’s difficult to find sympathy with her plight.

There’s a delicious implicit twist at the end which is fantastic. I love endings like that.

Once more I find it difficult to give a meaningful rating under a five star rating system. If it were six stars, I’d give Sweet William four but as it is, three doesn’t seem enough yet four might be too much.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beryl Bainbridge was a skilled and powerful writer. "Sweet William" is told through the eyes of a naive young woman named Ann. William almost hounds her into having a complicated romantic relationship with him. Ann also has an overbearing mother to contend with so that she often feels like she's bouncing from one person to another trying to please all of them. Of course this isn't possible especially with the changing mores of the '60's.

Booker nominated Bainbridge creates a complete if somewhat oppressive almost to the point of menacing inner atmosphere for these characters none of who are sympathetic as they swing from victim hood to dominance and back again. Luckily the book is short and so well written that it holds the reader's attention to the end although i was white knuckling it towards the end. I'm glad that Open Road is re-publishing such old gems as "Sweet William".

Thank you to the publisher for providing an e-copy of this book.

[Cynthia Archer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would like to say that I enjoyed this book. It was a fast read, and I didn't have any problems finishing it, but it just wasn't my idea of an inspiring read. I was hoping that one of the main characters would finally do something that would prove that they had learned something about life. Sadly, it was just about the back and forth of a bad romance. I am left with very little to recommend in this title. I found the characters too obviously obsessed with themselves and willing to use others and submit to being used all in the name of love.
I thank Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel of 1975 from Beryl Bainbridge's mid-career & once again it throbs with the damaging effects of sexual desire & unattainable dreams - in this version, William, a promiscuous but attractive playwright from Glasgow who exercises
a certain malign power over several gullible women...Ann Walton in particular...with life-changing but life-creating effects.
Bainbridge wastes no words on literary flourishes but tells the story in an uncompromising honesty about what life can subject a gentle soul to...wherever & whenever.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great one, top one. Semi (?) autobiographical again, with the portrait of a womaniser which is just a good as that of the narrator: a girl you might think stupid, or innocent, but whom you know in fact knows that's going on but is very reluctant to admit it.
It's the type of books where paying attention is key, the hints are there, the cues and clues as well, they may be subtle at times, and at others not at all.
The mother is quite a character too. Great.

[Rich Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd hoped this would be funny given the blurb but, beside the odd moment of William being sex-crazed, it wasnt really. That being said, it really surprised me with the story and the tension of what would happen next. The book excels at having Ana keep going back to William and the reader forgives her everytime (ludicrous though it is). Happy to gove this 4* and will look out for more by Bainbridge moving forward

[Merrilie Rowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked "Sweet William". What a womanizer and a complete cad he is. Poor Ann, caught up like a moth to the light bulb ! Loved the descriptions of Ann's mother, what a ghastly woman and Ann's relationship with her cousin was an interesting one. Much to like in this book which was my first Beryl Bainbridge. I can see that I will be reading a few more !

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beryl Bainbridge sure can write! Her stories are dark and humorous and so many times I must pause to reread some of her phrases because they are so original. I have not yet read a Bainbridge novel that I did not love.

[Gilles Russeil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anne, jeune fille anglaise comme il faut, rencontre William ds le Londres des années 1970. Et elle va très vite ne plus savoir si elle doit s'en réjouir ou en pleurer. Drôle, mélancolique, profond. Beryl Bainbridge est grande.