Sinister Street

Compton Mackenzie’s 1913 novel traces the long education of Michael Fane, from a sheltered London childhood into the corridors of prep school, public school, and finally Oxford. He and his sister Stella are the children of wealthy but absent parents, born outside marriage at a time when that fact shadowed everything, and Mackenzie follows Michael’s dawning awareness of it alongside his friendships, crushes, and hunt for some meaning worth living by. The book captures Edwardian England in fine, unhurried detail, and its honesty about growing up left a deep mark on younger writers, among them George Orwell and F. Scott Fitzgerald. This edition presents the first volume of the story. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.