![]() While the individualistic Arthur grinds down bicycle parts at his factory job on a capstan-lathe, he struggles against the social institutions trying to grind him down: work, marriage, sobriety. Playing with the mock-Latin aphorism Illegitimi non carborundum, Sillitoe reminds us that the phrase is a pun on a bastard file, a tool used for grinding: ‘Something about a carborundum wheel when he spouted it in Latin’. ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down,’ warns Arthur Seaton, the rebellious protagonist of Alan Sillitoe’s novel of working-class life in postwar Nottingham, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958). But does its innovative style cast off the label of ‘realist’? ![]() ![]() Alan Sillitoe’s 1958 novel has been praised for its authentic depiction of postwar Nottingham. ![]()
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