The Pianoplayers by Anthony Burgess

The Pianoplayers by Anthony Burgess

The Pianoplayers is the extraordinary story of Ellen Henshaw, a young Mancunian born just before the First World War who, when her mother dies, is put in the doubtful charge of her father, Billy, with whom she shares a series of picaresque adventures in Lancashire and beyond. From her earliest experiences of seedy boarding houses and Brussels convent education - where the nuns aim to equip their girls with more than just the basic skills for life - Ellen, with the gutsy streetwise common-sense of an Eliza Doolittle and the sophistication of a Moll Flanders, goes on to become the most highly sought-after 'companion' in the South of France and sets 'schools of love; from Singapore to Bangkok, Hamburg to London. But it is around Ellen's pianoplayer father that the main story revolves. Seldom sober but kind-hearted to a fault, he is a talented pianist whose love of the bottle has reduced him to accompanying silent films in flea-pit movie houses and competing in marathon non-stop playing competitions. Ellen recalls with fond affection her father and the world of Manchester and Blackpool in the 1920s. This new edition restores the original text with reference to manuscript drafts and fragments, examines publication history and reception, and provides valuable critical commentary and notes, placing the novel in the context of Anthony Burgess's other fictional and autobiographical writing. Fully annotated and supplemented by contemporary reviews and a rare short story by Anthony Burgess, this edition provides a wealth of material for new readers of Burgess's work and specialists alike.

Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917. He studied English at Manchester University and joined the army in 1940 where he spent six years in the Education Corps. After demobilization, he worked first as a college lecturer in Speech and Drama and then as a grammar-school master before becoming an education officer in the Colonial Service, stationed in Malay and Borneo. In 1959 Burgess was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and decided to become a full-time writer. Despite being given less than a year to live, Burgess went on to write at least a book a year - including A Clockwork Orange (1962), M/F (1971), Man of Nazareth (1979), Earthly Powers (1980) and The Kingdom of the Wicked (1985) - and hundreds of book reviews right up until his death. He was also a prolific composer and produced many full-scale works for orchestra and other media during his lifetime. Anthony Burgess died in 1993.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780877958321
ISBN 10	0877958327
Titel	The Pianoplayers
Autor	Anthony Burgess
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	Arbor House Publishing
Erscheinungsjahr	1986-10-01
Seitenanzahl	208
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar