How long is it?
506 pages in the Harper & Row 1977 hardcover edition.
Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 42 / 100Moderate
- Length
- 506 pagesHarper & Row · 1977
- Reading time
- 10 hat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 4 / 5
About 10 h · at 30 minutes a day, about 21 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Growing up in a Yorkshire mining village, Colin Saville carries his father's hope that education will spare him a life down the pit. His success takes him to grammar school, where classmates from wealthier families introduce him to a world far removed from his family's cramped home. From wartime childhood into the postwar years, school examinations, rugby and summer farm work mark his progress as he grows less at ease both among his peers and at home.
Reader notes
The coming-of-age novel develops through closely observed household routines and conversations, including Yorkshire dialect. Much of its drama lies in ordinary family exchanges, where affection, ambition and differences of class become difficult to separate.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Atmospheric · Descriptive · Direct
- Tone
- Earnest · Intimate · Melancholic · Reflective
- Structure
- Linear
- Driven by
- Atmosphere · Character · Relationships
- Point of view
- Third person, limited
- Setting
- Yorkshire mining village, England
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 1 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Belonging
- Class
- Coming of age
- Family
- Inequality
- Work
Content notes
- Violence
- Mild
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- None
- Substance use
- Mild
- Abuse
- Mild
- Self-harm or suicide
- None
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Booker Prize, 1976
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Harper & Row · 1977 · Hardcover. ISBN 9780060141264.
How long does it take to read Saville?
About 10 hours at 50 pages an hour, based on the 506-page Harper & Row edition. Dense books can take longer.
If you liked this
Edition and details
- Publisher
- Harper & Row
- Publication year
- 1977
- Format
- Hardcover
- Pages
- 506
- ISBN
- 9780060141264
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 1976
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Historical Fiction · Literary fiction · Coming of age · Family saga · Social novel
- Editions
- 10
- Languages
- 2 (English, Unspecified)
The catalog does not yet include a matching edition. Details may differ between editions.