The Polyglots (Paperback)
Description
A classic comedic masterpiece that will be embraced by a new generation of readers — both of serious fiction and of comedic ficton — The Polyglots initially published in 1925, and was celebrated by Anthony Powell as “a classic.”
It is the story of an eccentric Belgian family living in the Far East after World War I and the Russian Revolution. The tale is recounted by the family’s young English relative, Captain Georges Hamlet Alexander Diabologh, who visits during a military mission. Bursting with bizarre characters — from depressives to sex maniacs — Gerhardie delivers a remarkably absurd world where comedy and tragedy are never far apart.
About the Author
WILLIAM GERHARDIE (1895 - 1977) was one of the 20th century's most underappreciated masters. Of Anglo-Russian upbringing, he deftly combined the keen observations of Russian social realism with the sly wit of the English romantic comedy, all while honing his own particular comic edge on the dawning absurdity of the new century.
Praise for The Polyglots…
“The most influential English novel of the twentieth century.” —William Boyd
"To my generation Gerhardie was the most important new novelist to appear in our young life." -- Graham Greene
"I have talent, but he has genius." -- Evelyn Waugh
"One of the funniest writers of the century." -- Philip Toynbee
"A comic writer of genius...but his art is profoundly serious: underneath the shamelessness and farce, his themes are the great ones, love greif and death, of intimations of joy and our imprisonment in the world of flesh and time." -- The Sunday Times
