Allan Hollinghurst Ordre des livres (chronologique)

A 'Book of the Year' for multiple prestigious publications and featured on Radio 4's 'Book at Bedtime,' this novel is hailed as the best portrayal of contemporary Britain in the past decade, blending humor with deep emotional resonance. Alan Hollinghurst, the Booker Prize-winning author, presents a darkly luminous and wickedly funny exploration of modern England through one man's unsettling experiences. The narrative delves into themes of race, class, theatre, sexuality, love, and the harsh realities of violence. Thirteen-year-old Dave Win visits the sponsors of his scholarship at a local boarding school, where a weekend of games and challenges introduces him to new possibilities while revealing the envy and aggression of their son, Giles. Over the next fifty years, their paths diverge dramatically: Dave becomes a talented actor facing societal challenges, while Giles rises as a powerful and dangerous politician. The story intimately chronicles Dave's journey from schoolboy to student, his first love affairs in London, and his time with an experimental theatre company, culminating in a transformative late-life romance that brings him newfound happiness and a precarious sense of security. The novel debuted at #9 on the Sunday Times Fiction Hardback chart.

Designed to foster critical engagement and interest the specialist and non- specialist alike, each book in the Frick Diptych series illuminates a single work in the Frick's rich collection with an essay by a Frick curator paired with a contribution from a contemporary artist or writer

From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Man Booker Prize comes a masterly novel that spans seven transformative decades in England, exploring the complex relationships of a remarkable family. In 1940, David Sparsholt arrives at Oxford to study engineering, aiming to join the Royal Air Force. Charismatic and athletic, he remains unaware of his impact on others, particularly Evert Dax, the lonely son of a celebrated novelist destined to become a writer. Amid the chaos of World War II and the Blitz, Oxford serves as a backdrop for fleeting beauty and secret liaisons, where a friendship between David and Evert develops, leading to unexpected consequences. This novel delves into the legacy of David Sparsholt across three generations, revealing how his life influences friends and family. Through vividly rendered episodes—such as a Sparsholt holiday in Cornwall, eccentric gatherings at the Dax home, and the adventures of David's son Johnny in 1970s London—the narrative captures shifts in taste, morality, and private life. As it evokes the increasing openness of gay life, the story becomes a meditation on human transience, poignantly expressing the longing for permanence and continuity.

En 1913, George Sawle amène en week-end aux Deux Arpents, la maison familiale, un camarade de Cambridge, Cecil Valance. Cet aristocrate poète fait forte impression sur les Sawle, et notamment sur la jeune sœur de George, Daphné, éblouie par l’aisance et la liberté de ton de Cecil. Alors qu’il est l’amant de George, Cecil séduit Daphné et lui dédicace un poème, Deux Arpents . A partir de ce point de départ, l’auteur développe l’histoire de ces deux familles en une grande fresque qui couvre presque un siècle, avec pour fils rouges le déclin de l’aristocratie et l’évolution de la société anglaise dans son approche de l’homosexualité, les deux se rejoignant dans le destin posthume de Cecil, mort en 1916, à 25 ans, sur les champs de bataille. Ses poèmes, notamment Deux Arpents , lui valent une grande popularité dans l’immédiat après-guerre. Cette gloire éphémère, sa mort précoce, sa romance avec Daphné, mais aussi le soupçon d’une homosexualité scandaleuse, aiguillonnent la curiosité des biographes pour ce personnage qui semble sans cesse se dérober derrière le mur du discours officiel de ceux qui l’ont connu. Et le secret de Cecil disparaîtra, enfoui dans les ruines des grandes demeures désormais à l’abandon.

On the Battersea Reach of the Thames, a mixed bag of eccentrics live in houseboats. Belonging to neither land nor sea, they belong to one another. There is Maurice, a homosexual prostitute; Richard, a buttoned-up ex-navy man; but most of all there's Nenna, the struggling mother of two wild little girls. How each of their lives complicates the others is the stuff of this perfect little novel.

Alan Hollinghurst's first novel is a tour de force: a darkly erotic work that centres on the friendship of William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and the elderly Lord Nantwich, who is searching for someone to write his biography.

Picking up at the point in time where 'The Swimming-Pool Library' left off. Nick Guest has moved into the attic room of the Feddens: Gerald, a Tory MP, his wife Rachel and their children Toby and Catherine. The troubled Catherine soon becomes Nick's friend and uneasy responsibility.

A comedy of sexual manners that follows the interlocking affairs of four men: Robin Woodfield, an architect in his late forties living with his younger lover Justin (a would-be actor) in Dorset; Robin's 22-year-old son Danny, who lives for clubbing and casual sex; and shy Alex

A fourth collection of contemporary British literature, including poetry, essays, short stories, and previews of novels in progress. Among the many contributors, including both new and established writers, are A.S. Byatt, Nadine Gordimer, Hanif Kureishi, Fay Weldon, William Trevor and Brian Aldiss.

Edward Manners -- thirty three and disaffected -- escapes to a Flemish city in search of a new life. Almost at once he falls in love with seventeen-year-old Luc, and is introduced to the twilight world of the 1890s Belgian painter Edgard Orst.

Young, gay, William Beckwith spends his time, and his trust fund, idly cruising London for erotic encounters. When he saves the life of an elderly man in a public convenience an unlikely job opportunity presents itself. The man is Lord Nantwich, a gay peer of the realm and in the market for a biographer. Reluctantly accepting the commission, Will receives the first of Nantwich's diaries. But in the story he unravels, a tragedy of early 20th century gay repression, lurk bitter truths about Will's own privileged existence.