Byrne - Softcover

Burgess, Anthony

3.42

167 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099593017 ISBN 13: 9780099593010

Publisher: Vintage Classics, 1996

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BYRNE is Anthony Burgess's fianl work: an epic verse novel. It tells the story of a rampant Irish artist who, in the early years of this century, goes rapidly to the bad, philandering at every opportunity, selling his talents as a composer and painter, and ending up in Hitler's Third Reich. He then vanishes and the story passes to his children, including twin sons, one a doubting priest, the other sick of an incapacitating disease, who move across the troubled face of contemporary Europe before encountering their father in one final apocalyptic confrontation. Brilliantly readable, enormously funny and full of passion and energy, it is also Anthony Burgess's last powerful statement of life and art.

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Review:

"A rumbustious memorial to one of the most unignorable literary presences of our time" (Sunday Times)

"Dazzling... A brilliant and surprising conclusion to the career of one of the most intelligent and tireless writers of the century" (Philip Hensher Mail on Sunday)

"A fine book" (Independent)

"Byrne is full of his characteristic wit, gusto and erudition" (David Lodge Observer)

"A complex dark comedy in fluently rhymed verse. Frequently hilarious and always engaging, this final book simultaneously satisfies the differing demands of prose fiction and narrative verse. Composed mostly in the same ottava rima that Byron used for "Don Juan," Byrne shows Burgess in command of his poetic medium. One might expect an author to experience new spiritual insight on his deathbed, but such a technical breakthrough is highly unusual" (New York Times)

Book Description:

Completed shortly before Burgess's death, this novel in verse is extravagantly original

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