A pitch-black comedy set in London overshadowed by the looming threat of the Second World War, Patrick Hamilton's Hangover Square. London, 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation. Netta is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George. George is adrift in a drunken hell, except in his 'dead' moments, when something goes click in his head and he realizes, without a doubt, that he must kill her. In the darkly comic Hangove...

Premiering in London in 1929 before moving to Broadway, this play, inspired by a true story, was adapted by Hitchcock into a film starring Jimmy Stewart.They believed they had committed the perfect crime. In fact, university students Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo were so assured of how expertly they had covered up their heartless murder of a fellow undergraduate, they decided to throw a dinner party. Using the wooden chest that contains the corpse as a table...

Patrick Hamilton's *Rope* is a taut psychological thriller and a notable experiment in theatrical suspense. Set largely in a single room during the aftermath of a murder, the play follows two privileged young men who conceal their victim's body in a chest while entertaining guests above it. Hamilton gradually transforms ordinary conversation, social ritual, and comic unease into mechanisms of exposure, allowing tension to arise as much from pauses and evasions as from action. Its claustrop...

Patrick Hamilton's Rope is a taut theatrical study of murder, vanity, and moral derangement, cast in the elegant form of a drawing-room thriller. Set almost entirely in one room and unfolding with near-classical unity, the play converts polite conversation into an instrument of suspense. Its notorious premise—two young men conceal a corpse in a chest while entertaining guests around it—allows Hamilton to examine decadent intellectualism, class arrogance, and the dangerous glamour of "super...

'I don't know how I became so filled with hate. I find it shocking that I did. Somebody said to me that war affects us in all kinds of ways, and that drinking is only one of them. Perhaps hating people is another. Perhaps sex is too.'1943, Henley-on-Thames. Miss Roach is forced by the war to flee London for the Rosamund Tea Rooms boarding house, a place as grey and lonely as its residents. From the safety of these new quarters, her war effort now consists of a thousand pet...

Rope by Patrick Hamilton is a chilling and suspenseful stage play that explores the psychology of murder, moral arrogance, and the illusion of intellectual superiority. Inspired by the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, the play centers on two young men who strangle a fellow student simply to prove their belief in their own intellectual dominance—and then host a dinner party with the victim’s body hidden in the same room. Set entirely in a single apartment over the course of one evening, Rope...

NYRB Classics presents 3 darkly humorous, atmospheric novellas of love and disappointment, set in a run-down London pub after WWI—from the author of the Hitchcock classics Gaslight and Rope.“Bleak and brilliant. . . an authentic lost classic.” —The GuardianFeaturing a Dickensian cast of pubcrawlers, prostitutes, lowlifes, and just plain losers who are looking for love—or just an ear to bend—Hamilton’s novels are a...

“If it’s time for women to rule the world again, why are you telling this to me, a twenty-eight-year-old man?” Richard asked. Stopping in her tracks and spinning around, she looked Richard dead in the eye as she said, “Because of that. Because you are a twenty-eight-year-old man.” The soft look had dropped from her face as she scolded Richard. Forgive Me, Sister is the story of Richard, a guy who feels trapped in an increasingly masculine world where the mind takes precedence over the hear...

'I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific' Sarah Waters'If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man' Nick HornbyPatrick Hamilton's novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne's new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.Ernest Ral...

“Gritty, real, tough, and sardonic.” —Nick Hornby, author of Funny Girl“Fabulously poignant.” —Sarah Waters, author of FingersmithAs World War II drags on, the lonely Miss Roach flees London for the dull but ostensible safety of a suburban boarding house in this “pitch-perfect comedy” about “the passions and tensions of war” (The Independent).England in the middle of World War II, a war tha...

'I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific' Sarah Waters'If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man' Nick HornbyPatrick Hamilton's novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne's new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.West Kensi...

'I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific' Sarah Waters'If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man' Nick HornbyPatrick Hamilton's novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne's new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.Improm...