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Description edit
This is Barth's most distinguished masterpiece. This modern classic is a hilarious tribute to all the most insidious human vices, with a hero who is "one of the most diverting...to roam the world since Candide" ( Time ).
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Bertrand: Add a description of this character.
- John Mcevoy
- Anna
- Ebenezer
- Henry Burlingame
- Mary Mungummory
- Nicholson
- Mrs. Russecks
- Tim Mitchell
- Sowter
- Joan Toast
- Henrietta
- Andrew Cooke
- William Smith
- Susan Warren
- Mister Cooke
- Billy Rumbly
- Heav
- John Coode
- Harry
- Charles
- Roxanne
- Eben Cooke
- Claiborne
- Drepacca
- Robotham
- Wilhelm
- Sayer
- Thomas
- Fitz Maurice
- Peter
- Ben Oliver
- Wepenter
- James
- Drakepecker
Setting & Locations edit
- Maryland
- London
- Cambridge
- New England
- Lord Baltimore
- Virginia
- Malden
- Salvages
- Dorset
- St. Mary's City
- Bloodsworth Island
- St. Giles
- Tayac Chicamec
- America
- Church Creek
- Spurdance
- Anne Arundel Town
- Miss Brom
- Rome
- Locket
- New York
- France
- Dorchester
- Charley Mattassin
- Bristol
- Providence
- Pennsylvania
- Plymouth
- Kent Island
- Province
- Boccaccio
- Morpheides
- Quassapelagh
- Africa
- Captain Salmon
- Piscataway
- Paris
- Captain Meech
- Pudding Lane
- Spain
- Carolina
First Sentence edit
IN THE LAST YEARS of the Seventeenth Century there was to be found among the fops and fools of the London coffee-houses one rangy, gangling flitch called Ebenezer Cooke, more ambitious than talented, and yet more talented than prudent, who, like his friends-in-folly, all of whom were supposed to be educating at Oxford or Cambridge, had found the sound of Mother English more fun to game with than her sense to labor over, and so rather than applying himself to be the pains of scholarship, had learned the knack of versifying, and ground out quires of couplets after the fashion of the day, afroth with Joves and Jupiters, aclang with jarring rhymes, and string-taut with similes stretched to the snapping-point.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 42 of 100 in 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. (authoritative list)
Preceded by Midnight's Children, and followed by Genoa: A Telling of Wonders.
This book is in William H. Gass’s Fifty Literary Pillars. (community list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- John Barth (Author)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.54
Subjects edit
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