Three More Novels is a series of animated tableaux filled with beautiful, eccentric women pursuing pleasure in the most wicked, perverse, irresponsible ways, written by an extraordinary Englishman who dared to be as original in his books as he was in his life. So cleverly and wittily are the stor...
This is an odd and relatively obscure book that some might find tedious—the plot doesn’t move too quickly, and narrative is not so much the point of the exercise, anyway: Firbank’s forte is establishing tone and aesthetic sensibility, and what a scandalously witty tone and over-the-top aesthetic...
It was not the first interruption since opening the cherished green-bound book, and Mrs Montgomery seemed disinclined to stir. With the Court about to return to winter quarters, and the Summer-Palace upside down, the royal governess was still able to command her habitual British phlegm. It had be...
“Have you nothing, young man, to declare?” “…Butterflies!” “Exempt of duty. Pass.” Floor of silver, floor of pearl… Trailing a muslin net, and laughing for happiness...