Items related to I Served the King of England (Picador Books)

I Served the King of England (Picador Books) - Softcover

 
9780330308762: I Served the King of England (Picador Books)
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
In a comic masterpiece following the misadventures of a simple but hugely ambitious waiter in pre-World War II Prague, who rises to wealth only to lose everything with the onset of Communism, Bohumil Hrabal takes us on a tremendously funny and satirical trip through 20th-century Czechoslovakia. First published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally printed in book form in 1989, "I Served the King of England" is "an extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" ("The New York Times"), telling the tale of Ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in a deluxe Prague hotel in the years before World War II. Ditie is called upon to serve not the King of England, but Haile Selassie. It is one of the great moments in his life. Eventually, he falls in love with a Nazi woman athlete as the Germans are invading Czechoslovakia. After the war, through the sale of valuable stamps confiscated from the Jews, he reaches the heights of his ambition, building a hotel. He becomes a millionaire, but with the institution of communism, he loses everything and is sent to inspect mountain roads. Living in dreary circumstances, Ditie comes to terms with the inevitability of his death, and with his place in history.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
"The fantasising and storytelling deliver a body blow of total irreverence to the solemn mythopoeia of monumental historiography" (Times Literary Supplement)

"Hrabal bounces and floats. His mode is a sort of dancing realism, somewhere between fairytale and satire.He is a most sophisticated novelist, with a gusting humour and a hushed tenderness of detail. We should read him" (Julian Barnes)

"Well worth reading" (The Book Magazine)
Book Description:
'Our very best writer today' Milan Kundera

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherPicador
  • Publication date1995
  • ISBN 10 0330308769
  • ISBN 13 9780330308762
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages256
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780811216876: I Served the King of England: 0 (New Directions Classics)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780811216876
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corpor..., 2007
Softcover

  • 9780099540939: I Served The King Of England: Featuring an introduction by Adam Thirlwell

    Vintag..., 2009
    Softcover

  • 9780151457458: I Served the King of England

    Harcou..., 1989
    Hardcover

  • 9780679727866: I Served the King of England

    Vintag..., 1990
    Softcover

  • 9780099492894: I Served The King Of England

    Vintag..., 2006
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Bohumil Hrabal
Published by Picador (1990)
ISBN 10: 0330308769 ISBN 13: 9780330308762
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BennettBooksLtd
(LOS ANGELES, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.35. Seller Inventory # Q-0330308769

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 79.91
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 3.27
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds