Esta es la historia del imparable ascenso de Joe Lampton, un genuino trepa de clase obrera, encantador y caradura, que se abre paso como puede en la estricta Inglaterra de los primeros años de la posguerra. Atrapado en un deprimente pueblo industrial de Yorkshire, el oportunista Lampton, contable municipal cuyas principales aficiones son la cerveza y las jóvenes casaderas, aspira a crearse una «reputación social», para lo cual no dudará en ganarse el aprecio de las fuerzas vivas del lugar.

Well written and interesting post-war novel about class and ambition. Enjoyed, but struggled to like the main character and their attitudes. ( )

Set in post-war Britain, Joe Lampton, is a young ex-service man from a modest background. He moves from his home-town of Dufton to the more affluent wool rich town of Warley to pursue a career in local Government. Joe is handsome with an athletic figure and is a hit with the ladies but he is socially ambitious and after something more than he was born into.

When Joe moves to Warley he takes a room in a large house and joins the local amateur theatrical group where he meets Susan - a young, naive, attractive, girl from a wealthy family and Alice, a married woman some years his senior. Joe begins an affair with Alice but continues to see Susan also. Whereas his love for Susan is shallow, initially non-sexual and more about personal ambition, he finds that he has a real connection with Alice. It is soon very obvious that Joe is heading for heartache, will love or ambition win out?

First published in 1957 and set just after WWII when rationing was still in place and social mobility was difficult, this then is an example of social realism in literature and it's unsurprising that the luxuries afforded the wealthy were coveted by the many. Dufton, is a grimy, stagnant place, whose inhabitants go about their business with no thought of a better life whereas Warley is far brighter and more affluent, its inhabitants more ambitious but it is also obvious, that despite his social pretensions, Joe is unable to shake off his small-town up-bringing.

Joe is a difficult character to empathise with, although his frustration with the world around him is no doubt shared by a lot of young men even today, but is on the whole well drawn. However, Joe is playing against a system which is stacked against him in a game that he cannot possibly win. In contrast the women are rather sketchy and lack real depth character.

Overall I found this is a reasonable look at the class system of the time in Britain but I failed to get really excited about this novel. I found Braine's writing functional rather than gritty and the dialogue felt clunky, annoying and unreal at times. I suspect that it's literary merit at the time of publication just doesn't really compute with today's modern world. However, I do hope to read the follow up novel, 'Life at the Top', sooner rather than later. ( )

Esta es la historia del imparable ascenso de Joe Lampton, un genuino trepa de clase obrera, encantador y caradura, que se abre paso como puede en la estricta Inglaterra de los primeros años de la posguerra. Atrapado en un deprimente pueblo industrial de Yorkshire, el oportunista Lampton, contable municipal cuyas principales aficiones son la cerveza y las jóvenes casaderas, aspira a crearse una «reputación social», para lo cual no dudará en ganarse el aprecio de las fuerzas vivas del lugar. ( )

"I was moving into the attack and no one had better try to stop me"
By sally tarbox on 8 December 2017
Format: Paperback
Grabs you from the first page: narrated by fiercely ambitious young Joe Lampton, an intelligent lad from a humble background. It's just after WW2 and accountant Joe has broken away from his grim northern hometown of Dufton for an accountancy position in the much more salubrious Warley. He appreciates his new, elegant lodgings,the middle class folk around him; he starts mixing with the select types who make up the local dramatic society; but he's constantly aware that he can never be the equal of the local bigwigs.
And while he begins a love affair with older, married Alice, he's also studiedly making up to wealthy, innocent young Susan Brown:
"A Grade A lovely...the daughter of a factory-owner...the means of obtaining the key to the Aladdin's cave of my ambitions."
Compelling reading. ( )