The Polyglots
Published on 5. October 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-78669-478-2 (ISBN)
Description
Set in the Far East just after the First World War, Gerhardie's comic masterpiece in the tale of an eccentric Belgian family, recounted by their young English relative who comes to stay with them.
Filled with bizarre characters - depressives, obsessives, paranoiacs and sex maniacs - Gerhardie paints a wonderfully strange world where the comic and tragic are entwined.
Filled with bizarre characters - depressives, obsessives, paranoiacs and sex maniacs - Gerhardie paints a wonderfully strange world where the comic and tragic are entwined.
Reviews / Votes
Wonderfully eccentric, funny and beguilingly melancholic. Gerhardie's masterpiece -- William Boyd A master of ironic comedy * Tablet * Comic, full of farcical characters, while at the same time containing acts of tragedy and pathos, which are surprising as well as heart-rending... A wonderful world where comedy and tragedy intertwine' * Historical Novel Society * This story of a citizen of the world is both funny and melancholy - Dickensian in spirit yet also true to its moment in the wake of the First World War and the Russian Revolution * TLS *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-78669-478-2 (9781786694782)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
William Gerhardie (1895-1977) was born in St Petersburg. Leaving Russia in the wake of the 1917 revolution, Gerhardie travelled to Siberia with the British Military Mission. After two years there, he left the army with an OBE, sailing to England by way of Singapore, Colombo and Port Said - a journey that forms the closing chapters of The Polyglots. He died in London in 1977.