253:, Moses, describes London as a lonely city that "divide up in little worlds, and you stay in the world where you belong to and you don't know anything about what is happening in the other ones except what you read in the papers." Against a backdrop of invisibility, many of the characters struggle with a sense of failed promise. Regardless of their actions, a certain sense of stagnancy prevails. Moses says: "...I just lay there on the bed thinking about my life, how after all these years I ain't get no place at all, I still the same way, neither forward nor backward."
320:", in their spare time they can be found "liming"—the Caribbean pastime of hanging around with friends eating, talking and drinking—and some of their talk will be "oldtalk", reminiscences of their previous lives in the West Indies and the exchange of news from home. Finally, a white English girl can be a "skin" ("a sharp piece of skin"), a "cat", a "number", a "chick" or "white
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under-going the direst of tribulations, Selvon has a way of capturing the humour in the situation.... The message of The Lonely
Londoners is even more vital today than in 50s Britain: that, although we live in societies increasingly divided along racial, ideological and religious lines, we must remember what we still have in common – our humanity."
241:. This mobility is clouded by the character's designation as the "other". Selvon's characters are offered the worst jobs, they are exploited by housing landlords, and their romantic ventures oftentimes only includes sex. Their accents and race mark them as outsiders and force them to form a group identity based on the principle of congregation via
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has noted: "One imagines immediately the loneliness that must have gnawed at these immigrants whose memory of their sunny, convivial island communities was their only refuge at such moments. But although this is a book about exile and alienation, it is not a sad book. Even when his characters are
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increases as he gets older. Every Sunday morning "the boys", many of them recent arrivals, come together in his rented room to trade stories and inquire after those whom they have not seen for a while. Their lives mainly consist of work (or looking for work) and various petty pleasures.
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respectively. (Unlike today, the
Notting Hill area evoked a down-at-heel area of cheap lodgings where Caribbean immigrants could more easily find accommodation than elsewhere in London, but be victims of practices like
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but soon found out that such language would not aptly convey the experiences and the unarticulated thoughts and desires of his characters. In creating a third person narrator who uses the same
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dimension to the traditional London novel and enhanced the awareness in both readers and writers of a changing London society which could no longer be ignored. Thus, in style and context,
245:. Though they have various coping mechanisms: sex, lavish spending, drinking, hard work, appeasing white women, etc., the novel ultimately conveys unity in their experiences and the
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822:"The rise of the lonely Londoners: When the writer Sam Selvon arrived in England in 1950, he came in on a tide of new West Indian creativity...."
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Christian Mair (March 1989). "Naipaul's Miguel Street and Selvon's Lonely
Londoners – Two Approaches to the Use of Caribbean Creole in Fiction".
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Moses
Aloetta, a veteran émigré who, after more than ten years in London, has still not achieved anything of note and whose
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147:. Its publication was one of the first to focus on poor, working-class black people following the enactment of the
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expressions. For example, when "the boys" talk about "the Water" or "the Gate", they are referring to
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Other novels with the theme of the immigrant experience among
Caribbeans in London include:
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in the usual sense of the term. The novel follows a limited number of characters of the "
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A remarkable passage within the novel about a typical London summer is written in the
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The language used by Selvon's characters and by the narrator contains a multitude of
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All page references are to the 2006 Penguin "Modern
Classics" edition.
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742:"Jermyn Street celebrates 30th anniversary with Roy Williams premiere"
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A recurring theme in Selvon's character development addresses upward
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form of
English as the characters of the novel, Selvon added a new,
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558:"The Big Jubilee Read: Books from 1952 to 1961"
838:"Samuel Selvon: 'The Lonely Londoners' - 1956"
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801:"The Immigrant's Urban Tale ... 40 years On"
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796:(17 March 2007). Retrieved 7 August 2007.
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840:(on Selvon's representation of London),
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366:(10–14 March), produced by Ralph Rolls.
264:Narrative technique, language and style
740:Luckhurst, Georgia (2 November 2023).
663:The Journal of Commonwealth Literature
276:. Selvon started writing the novel in
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730:, Issue 3814, 10 March 1997, p. 115.
805:Etudes Britanniques Contemporaines
185:'s platinum jubilee in June 2022.
14:
331:mode, linking up Selvon with the
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862:Afro-Caribbean culture in London
807:(1993). Retrieved 7 August 2007.
643:, "Introduction" to Sam Selvon,
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268:The most striking feature of
193:The book details the life of
877:Trinidad and Tobago diaspora
373:by Lauris Morgan-Griffiths,
149:British Nationality Act 1948
16:1956 novel by Samuel Selvon
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381:, produced by Sara Davies.
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887:Working-class literature
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651:: London, 2006), p. vi.
377:, BBC Radio 4, read by
329:stream-of-consciousness
699:(Penguin, 2006), p. x.
390:Jermyn Street Theatre
371:five-part abridgement
346:five-part abridgement
169:was included on the "
22:The Lonely Londoners
872:Novels set in London
790:"Out of the Shadows"
776:The Lonely Londoners
710:The Lonely Londoners
697:The Lonely Londoners
645:The Lonely Londoners
623:"Out of the Shadows"
610:The Lonely Londoners
597:The Lonely Londoners
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290:The Lonely Londoners
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206:The Lonely Londoners
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132:The Lonely Londoners
857:1956 British novels
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214:Windrush generation
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485:Absolute Beginners
183:Queen Elizabeth II
179:The Reading Agency
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233:Social commentary
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818:Naseem Khan
751:28 December
727:Radio Times
533:White Teeth
528:Zadie Smith
454:Andrea Levy
360:BBC Radio 4
339:Adaptations
251:protagonist
247:self-hatred
243:segregation
222:Trinidadian
141:Trinidadian
851:Categories
545:References
362:, read by
335:movement.
314:Rachmanism
151:alongside
778:(London:
746:The Stage
683:161368269
612:, p. 113.
586:, p. 134.
333:modernist
305:Bayswater
282:creolized
218:coloureds
139:novel by
100:paperback
57:Publisher
722:Listings
708:Selvon,
608:Selvon,
599:, p. 60.
595:Selvon:
397:See also
197:in post-
189:Overview
159:) novel
123:65467567
96:hardback
49:Language
568:13 June
272:is its
208:has no
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110:142 pp.
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318:spades
202:London
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39:Author
679:S2CID
411:Gents
322:pussy
301:slang
135:is a
107:Pages
753:2023
570:2022
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522:1985
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137:1956
117:OCLC
78:1956
68:(US)
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