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Bezig met laden... The Eve of Saint Venus (1964)door Anthony Burgess
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. In his preface to the 1981 edition Burgess says that the novella, first published in 1964, owed its origin to his re-discovery of a playscript written, discarded and forgotten in 1952. It seems to have been published again, in 2006, by Hesperus Press. My foxed and battered copy of the earlier edition includes the charcoal drawings by Edward Pagram which Burgess is said to have disliked because they ‘diminished the text’, so that it was not taken seriously. It remains unclear just how seriously Burgess intended the book to be taken: perhaps I was seduced by Pagram’s darkly funny illustrations. It’s an extravagantly wordy farce with stock characters that should be enjoyed at a sitting, like an old champagne, while the fizz still lasts. I particularly liked Burgess’ nostalgic evocation of the US and Russian Cold War competition to launch satellites into orbit round our troubled planet: ‘Russians and Americans vying with each other as young boys vie with each other, arching higher and higher, in school urinals’. Delightful farce in which a young man accidentally manages to marry himself to a statue of Venus on the eve of his wedding, and the chaos which ensues. Hesperus have published this along with a short story by Prosper Merimee, 'The Venus of Ille', which provides another, far more Gothic, take on the legend, which is recorded as far back as the late Roman period. Merimee's contribution interested me mainly for the contrast which it affords to Burgess's story, which reads a bit like an intellectual Noel Coward play. Great fun - the first thing by Burgess I've read - and yet another fantastic publication from Hesperus, who are top on my list of publishers to watch - everything I've read from their catalogue has been very good. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
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Here is a midsummer night's dream of a novel, Anthony Burgess in a mood of comic whimsy. A baronet, Sir Benjamin Drayton, has received a consignment of stone statues of gods and goddesses, including Venus. A ring slipped on Venus's finger by a young man about to be married upsets a number of arrangements, including the wedding plans. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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"The driver was rather sweet," said Diana, "and very intellectual. He talked about Andre Gide and Marcel Proust. He'd been, so he told me, a school-master, but was now trying to better himself." ( )