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Product Description
An inability to control his fantasies sends Gilbert Pinfold, a well-known author, cruising on a Ceylon-bound liner to recuperate. Yet, to his horror, the hallucinations increase and life on board becomes very embarrassing. This curious and diverting novel throws new light on Evelyn Waugh's remarkable talent.
From the Publisher
Also by Ronald Harwood, Amber Lane Press have published his biography Sir Donald Wolfit - His Life and Work in the Unfashionable Theatre, and the plays After the Lions, Another Time, The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest, The Dresser, Interpreters, J.J. Farr, Tramway Road, and an English version of Chekhov's Ivanov.
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It may happen in the next hundred years that the English novelists of the present day will come to be valued as we now value the artists and craftsmen of the late eighteenth century. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
It may happen in the next hundred years that the English novelists of the present day will come to be valued as we now value the artists and craftsmen of the late eighteenth century. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ordeal of Waugh,
By
This review is from: The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold: A Conversation Piece (Penguin Modern Classics Fiction) (Paperback)
The beautiful grandeur of Brideshead was in the past, but if you are happy to read a somewhat disturbing and personal account of a man aging and suffering acute personal anguish this is an excellent novel. It has a certain intensity, like Thomas Bernhard, which for some readers is good. Others not. I dip into this book more than I do Waugh's earlier novels and I would recommend it.
5 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tedious,
By
This review is from: The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold: A Conversation Piece (Penguin Modern Classics Fiction) (Paperback)
I've been reading for 50 years what a great novel this is, so I thought I'd better get to it. It relates an (autobiographical, they say) description of a man suffering from extreme paranoia as the result of overindulgence in pharmaceutical remedies and alcohol. Think "delirium tremens". He is stuck on a sea voyage, and a group of imagined devils is persecuting him.
But the details of his illness go on for what seem endless pages, episode after episode, at least 30% more than necessary - and this is a short novel. I kept reading out of curiosity about what would happen in the end. Nothing. He goes back home. His publisher should have trimmed it, presented it as a long short story in the form of a novelette. But Waugh, an excellent writer when in good form, was a nasty piece of work, and not to be toyed with.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A small comic masterpiece,
By Alan OBrien - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (Hardcover)
If there are any aspiring writers of comic novels out there then I earnestly entreat you to have a quick read of this book. Writing humour is never easy but here is the great Evelyn Waugh showing how to do it. Not a word out of place, the mot juste on every occasion, prose stripped down to the bare minimum.I read this book about twice a year. It is very short and can be read in a day. And, heavens!, how hilarious it is! It is based on a true life cruise that Waugh went on in which he really did start to hear voices. It is not one of his most well-known so it can be hard to obtain; it's well worth it though! 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Drugs and sea air,
By Catspec "Catspec" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (Paperback)
Mr. Pinfold has become ill from his use of drugs, food and alcohol, and is in general dried up as far as writing goes. In order to "take the sea air" and follow his doctor's orders he embarks upon a cruise. He does not, however, stop the sleeping medications, and is probably seriously clinically depressed as well. the combination becomes the conduit for a series of hallucinations which become a nightmare and a reality for Gilbert Pinfold. Although humerous, the book is crafted in such a way that we see the suffering that losing touch with reality causes, and when Gilbert finally arrives at port and at peace, we are glad we read the book, and glad the author recovered his muse.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Waugh at his best!,
By Constant Weeder "batttman" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (Paperback)
Waugh, Evelyn, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1957.
A middle-aged novelist, somewhat corpulent and partial to his toddy, almost a mirror of Waugh at the time, books steamer passage to Ceylon for a solo vacation to settle his nerves. What he gets instead is incessant noise, voices, music and criticism directed at himself through the walls and floors of his cabin. How he deals with these disturbances makes for a troubling but sometimes hilarious and often moving novella. Are these noises hallucinations or cleverly designed tricks played over the BBC? Who is directing them? How would the reader react to them in Gilbert's place? His solution is cunning and the novella is a fine piece of writing indeed. Five stars. |
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