ey Glen, past Ripley memorial Hospital, past the Albert Institute, with its four stone lions (unsuccessful entrants in the Trafalgar Square competition), past the fire station which looks like a Methodist chapel and over the canal to the huge sprawling hulk of Ripley Mills. Ripley Mills haven't changed much since 1850 when Seth Ripley first built them ... Ripley is fixed permanently in the Victorian age. But in one of. Its bright patches; Ripley, with its faults, was built for human beings to live in; it was designed as a village, a living community; it s not just a sprawl of mean houses, a huddle of rent books. The happiness isn t an accident, for it doesn t have to fight for survival here; Ripley holds it like a sponge, it s cumulative, a kind of benign lead acetate accumulating ever since 1850. second novel The Vodi was published in 1959, Life at the Top, a sequel to Room at the Top in 1962. Then the novel The Jealous God came out in 1964. at the Top and its sequel Life at the Top. On the basis of his first novel Room at the Top John Braine has been grouped among the angry young men . Nevertheless, he has been different from the writers of this group. Braine penetrates deeper into the conflict between the hero and society. He depicts the tragedy of a working man, who, in search of a career, corrupts his own soul, becomes cynical, calculating and cruel. His greatest achievement in the novel is his original way of exposing the inhumanity of bourgeois society.hero of the novel Joe Lampton has been brought up on the fringes of poverty and squalor in a provincial town in the North. His sole aim is to fight his way up into the world of money and influence. So when he goes to a new town and a new job, and starts to move among comfortable-off, intelligent people it looks as if the campaign is succeeding. Since he is an attractive and energetic young man, it is not long before a pretty girl, Susan, the daughter of a wealthy mill-owner, falls in love with him. Only one thing holds him back: his love for another woman, Alice. She is married and older than Joe, and her looks are beginning to fade, but between them an extraordinary love has grown up. But he is striving for a place in the society, he is doing his best to win room at the top. Joe marries his boss daughter, and even ten years after his marriage (Life at the Top), he is living the dream life of the successful executive, complete with a luxurious suburban house, and two lovely children. His ultimate objective seems to have been reached: the light grey carpet, the built-in wardrobe, the electric oven, the mixing machine, the pink wall table. But all this belongs to his father-in-law, and he himself is not the master of the situation, he is Brown s son-in-law . I would never be any more than a sound reliable man obeying orders without question , he says. He cannot completely forget his background, and when he is coaxed into becoming a Tory councilor, he revolts against their crude self-interest in the council chambers, and makes a startling denunciation of them. However, he is caught in a trap of his own making-trapped by the emptiness of life at the top. Joe s greatest feelings are for his daughter Barbara. She is the apple of his eye. When Joe looks at her, speaks to her, plays with her he wants to cry with happiness. But Joe is briskly stripped of his illusions, that is, if he ever had any. Once when he returns home from his business trip earlier than planned, he finds his wife making love in their bedroom with Mark. His first impulse was to kill the man, but he thought that the noise would frighten Barbara and the whole scene would crash her world. Later he finds out that Barbara was Mark s daughter, not his. He decides to blow up the prison door and makes up his mind to leave Susan. He gets infatuated with Norah. He is free now. But he got so used to the luxury of his previous life that after his short stay in London with Norah he returns to Susan and to the conveniences of which he became a slave.special merit of Braine s novel is the evolution of the hero. Joe Lampton is so typical, so true-to life a portrait that his name has become a literary common noun in England.
Comprehension Questions and Tasks
1. Explain the term angry young men . What were the main ideas and slogans of the gene...
