PATRICK HAMILTON’S CRAVEN HOUSE: PARODYING THE EDWARDIAN WELTANSCHAUUNG

Abstract

The following article is concerned with the depiction of the social decay of the Edwardian middle class in Patrick Hamilton’s serio-comic inter-war novel Craven House (1926). It is argued that while Hamilton satirises their conservative Weltanschauung, he also associates it with their social downfall. Beginning with an analysis of Hamilton’s own experience as a child of an Edwardian middle-class family, the article proceeds to examine the various facets of the Edwardian worldview that Hamilton satirises. It is concluded that the author’s critique of the Edwardian worldview acts at its core as nothing more than a metaphor for their social disintegration.