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The Hearing Trumpet (Paperback)

by Leonora Carrington (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Exact Change,U.S.; New edition edition (20 April 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1878972197
  • ISBN-13: 978-1878972194
  • Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 15.4 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 400,205 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Library Journal

"A strange and wonderful novel… this book is a masterpiece of Surrealistic fantasy, combining rich symbolic suggestion with a gripping narrative."


Book Description

Leonora Carrington, the distinguished British-born Surrealist painter who now makes her home in Mexico City, is also a writer of extraordinary imagination and charm. Exact Change launches a program of reprinting her fiction with what is perhaps her best loved book. The Hearing Trumpet is the story of 92-year-old Marian Leatherby, who is given the gift of a hearing trumpet only to discover that what her family is saying is that she is to be committed to an institution. But this is an institution where the buildings are shaped like birthday cakes and igloos, where the Winking Abbess and the Queen Bee reign, and where the gateway to the underworld is open. It is also the scene of a mysterious murder. Occult twin to Alice in Wonderland, The Hearing Trumpet is a classic of fantastic literature that has been translated and celebrated throughout the world.

"Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days." — Luis Buñuel

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Hearing Trumpet - Leonora Carrington, 12 Nov 2008
By RachelWalker "RachelW" (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Hearing Trumpet (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
Wonderful. A fantastical, surreal fable that begins when a 92 year old lady is given a hearing trumpet by a friend and then overhears her family planning to dump her in an old people's home. Off she goes to a home where a collection of old women live variously in shoes, mushrooms and towers, and they are at the will of Dr Gambit, a man who preaches that they must discover inner Christianity during their stay. This, and what follows, is a hilarious, surreal, illuminating and quietly philosophical tale, the most obvious (and possibly least important) themes of which are age and perception. It's heart-warming, eccentric, and makes you glad to be alive. It turns into a stranger tale than I was expecting it to, but I would wholeheartedly recommend this: a unique and piercing little piece of fiction.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Old Ladies, the Apocalypse(?), and Death by Chocolate!!!, 2 May 1998
By A Customer
The Hearing Trumpet is deliciously funny and irreverent; Surrealist painter/author Leonora Carrington's apocalyptic tale is filled with gems such as "Darling, don't be philosophical, it doesn't suit you, it makes your nose red." Filtered through the eyes and ears of Marian Leatherby, a 92 year-old inmate of a Spanish old folk's home (run by the cultlike Well of Light Brotherhood), the tongue-in-cheek tone and hilarious chracters make this book a refreshing surprise. Every copy I've ever owned has been stolen! From the first paragraph, the reader will see that Marian Leatherby and her friends are NOT LOL's (Little Old Ladies), and Leonora Carrington is not your average author. (She's truly hilarious, for one!) Read this book for its wacky imagery (a trompe l'oeil "furnished" tower, a pair of murdering religious quacks, termite engineering, wigs, marijuana-stuffed needlepoint pillows, and a 92 year-old lady swarming down ten stories of rope, for starters), then hide your copy from your well-read friends...or buy them their own!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Hearing Trumpet, 20 Feb 2006
By Ruby Adams (Hertfordshire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Hearing Trumpet (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
Marian Leatherby, a 92 year old, not quite antiquated woman. Is given a gift of a hearing trumpet, only to uncover her scheming family have every intention of committing her to an institution for elderly ladies. It takes a considerable amount of coercion but Marian packs her bags and leaves her beloved cats with a close friend. Nevertheless the institution is no coventional one, by any means. The buildings are shaped like lighthouses and birthday cakes, the portrait of a winking abbess has a strange and secretive connection to the institution and the women who live there, and who is the woman in the tower? Read this book and be taken on copious amusing, mystical and extremely surreal adventures. Encounter the king of the wolves, the queen bee and many more fantastical creatures. It really is a truely wonderful book, I urge you to read this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars One reality of older persons care
I came to this book with some knowledge of care homes and some knowledge of the surrealist movement and so I was interested in the subject matter from two angles. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2007 by Pillowtail

1.0 out of 5 stars Too surreal and too disjoint
Although parts of this book are very amusing I found the whole book too disjoint and surreal for my liking. Read more
Published on 3 April 2006 by Mr. Robert E. Quirk

5.0 out of 5 stars like a wild fairy tale
Leonora Carrington is awsome as an author - she doesn't let her imagination be chained by convention or by anything. What a vivid, strange world these characters live in. Read more
Published on 15 Jul 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars Carrington's work is both dreamlike and socially relevant.
Leonora Carrington's dream like tale of Marian, a plucky ninety-five year old, straddles the boundary between mad fantasy and insightful social commentary. Read more
Published on 31 Oct 1997

5.0 out of 5 stars A surreal tale of an old woman, yet not this at all.
Perhaps known to more as an artist, Leonora Carrington also happens to be a superb writer. Few adult novels would dare to accomodate their main character in a house with real... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 1997

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