The Ragman's Daughter

by Alan Sillitoe

Short story collection- the title story is about, "A young Englishman, now married, reminisces about his wild teen-age days. He stole for kicks. He met Doris, daughter of a prosperous scrap merchant, who became his partner in love and thievery. He was caught after they robbed a shoe shop one night. He spent 3 yrs. in prison. Doris was pregnant, she married a mechanic, & both were killed in an accident. After Tony came out of prison he went straight. He never acknowledged his & Doris' child but knows the boy is well cared for by his grandfather." (from The New Yorker); Inspiration for the film, The Ragman's Daughter, a 1972 British crime-drama / romantic film directed by Harold Becker starring Simon Rouse and Victoria Tennant.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, British Literature

Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Alan Sillitoe was an English writer, one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s (although he, in common with most of the other writers to whom the label was applied, had never welcomed it).
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sil...

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this to my unruly class when I trained to be a teacher and it saved my life - they loved the gritty stories told at a pace. My teaching career didn't last though...
...2012: just put the lovely 60s cover up. That's the copy I had.

[Axel Ainglish · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short stories rank among the most moving and poetic books I've ever read. Really, several of them are rare jewels, full of life and the joy of being in love, as the one that gives title to the volume. They are very graphic, vivid ones, you are watching the young couple as in a movie or a comic. And you are wishing them the best, inspite of what they are doing. The Angry Young Man Sillitoe was, gave him the rage to write some excellent short stories, and not only The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner one, that made him famous. That collection is also a good one, but think this one, written before, is even better, For it has a poetry that's lacking in that one. But the movie made famous the Loneliness instead. Sillitoe is a realistic writer who dedicated himself to the British workers of the fifties, when the movement of the Angry Young Men arose. Highly politically left inclined writers and movie Directors, they gave to England some good novels turned into movies soon. The Sillitoe plots are plausible and full of action and sometimes, as the Loneliness, they can be a metaphore of people that wants to remain loyal to their class and roots. Having becoming that, a sign of identity. So is clever Liitrature, a very good one, indeed, always showing the other side of the mirror. The other side of the welfare state. Think that it happens in England, but it could happen elsewhere as well, for that was the fifties world in Europe. Somehow that is what makes Sillitoe and his kind a bit universal, and so adding an important dimension to this Literature. The writing is direct, and goes quickly to the mind and heart as well. There is some fifties cockney, here and there, in this writing. As novelist, Sillitoe has also some good titles, as the famous Saturday Night Sunday Morning, also taken into a good movie and wisely describing let's say two days of a common working man, once again, in the industrial England of the fifties. I like Sillitoe, generally, but if I had to choose a single book of him, it will no doubt be this short stories collection. For it's poetry. A very touching book. Loved it and stiil do.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is years since I read this series of short stories but due to the matter of fact story lines that Alan Sillitoe uses to explore human nature, the book is never far from my mind.......

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was working in Nottingham and felt it was time I finally gave Sillitoe a go. I will now move on and read the rest.

[Ivano Porpora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conoscevo già Sillitoe per La solitudine del maratoneta, delizioso, pubblicato da Minimum fax - se non sbaglio. Questi racconti tracciano una vena che ricorda solo per metà la narrativa inglese che conosco e invece molto quella americana. Il lato che mi piace di più, però, è quello sbigottente aprirsi delle porte dell'inferno. Le due lettere di Enoch, e il finale dell'ultimo racconto ("L'azione è solo mimica"), sono incredibili.

[Jadransko · Rating 4 out of 5]

"La bici" e "Le due lettere di Enoch" su tutti.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

working class to the core.

[Ziemniaczana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5

[Greg Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of a collection published together; great story teller and commentator on prudish Britain of the 1960s and 70s; great sociological stories

[Peter Coomber · Rating 4 out of 5]

There one throwaway story in here but the rest are gems.

[Wojtek Konieczny · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.5/10