The Tragedy of Arthur - Hardcover

Phillips, Arthur

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400066476 ISBN 13: 9781400066476

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2011

Synopsis

When their long-imprisoned con-artist father reaches the end of his life, Arthur and his twin sister become the owners of an undiscovered play by William Shakespeare that their father wants published, a final request that represents either a great literary gift or their father's last great heist. By the author of The Song Is You.

About this title

Review:

Praise for "Tragedy of Arthur"
"Splendidly devious."
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, COVER REVIEW
"[Phillips] best trick is to balance a moving story of familial and romantic love on a deliberately unsteady fictional edifice...[an] exuberant chimera of a novel. Boldly he includes the full five-act play itself, a virtuosic counterfeit."
--THE NEW YORKER
"Sparkling and imaginative.... Shakespeare would applaud a man who does him so proud. Readers, too, may well praise Phillips for crafting so wily and witty an excursion into the ties that bind fiction and life."
- BOSTON GLOBE
"His wildest and funniest yet, at once homage to Nabokov's Pale Fire, satire of literary hagiography in general and Shakespeare scholarship in particular, and a hilarious yet trenchant riff on memoirs."
- NPR.org
"Devious and exhilarating... such a wonderful con job."
- Wall Street Journal
"Wily and wonderful...a shape-shifting stunner... diabolically merry."

A "New York Times" Notable Book
A "Library Journal" Top Ten Book of the Year
A "Kirkus Reviews" Best Book of the Year
One of Salon's five best novels of the year
"[Balances] a moving story of familial and romantic love on a deliberately unsteady fictional edifice . . . [an] exuberant chimera of a novel."--"The New Yorker"
"Wily and witty . . . an engrossing family saga [with] sparkling and imaginative prose. Shakespeare would applaud a man who does him so proud."--"The Boston Globe"
" "
"Arthur Phillips has found the perfect vehicle for his cerebral talents: his ingenuity; his bright, elastic prose; and, most notably, his penchant for pastiche--for pouring his copious literary gifts into old vessels and reinventing familiar genres."--"The New York Times"
" "
"Devious and exhilarating . . . an irresistible family drama bundled into an exploration of fraud and authenticity."--"The Wall Street Journal"
" "
"A circus of a novel, full of wit

"[Balances] a moving story of familial and romantic love on a deliberately unsteady fictional edifice . . . [an] exuberant chimera of a novel."--"The New Yorker"
"Splendidly devious.""--The New York Times Book Review"
"Wily and witty . . . an engrossing family saga [with] sparkling and imaginative prose. Shakespeare would applaud a man who does him so proud."--"The Boston Globe"
" "
"Arthur Phillips has found the perfect vehicle for his cerebral talents: his ingenuity; his bright, elastic prose; and, most notably, his penchant for pastiche--for pouring his copious literary gifts into old vessels and reinventing familiar genres."--"The New York Times"
" "
"Devious and exhilarating . . . an irresistible family drama bundled into an exploration of fraud and authenticity."--"The Wall Street Journal"
" "
"A circus of a novel, full of wit, pathos and irrepressible intelligence."--Minneapolis "Star Tribune"
"The story of a family that is Shakespearean in several senses . . . ["The Tragedy of Arthur"] contains literary echoes of Nabokov, Stoppard and even . . . Thomas Pynchon."--"San Francisco Chronicle
"

[Balances] a moving story of familial and romantic love on a deliberately unsteady fictional edifice . . . [an] exuberant chimera of a novel. "The New Yorker"
Splendidly devious. " The New York Times Book Review"
Wily and witty . . . an engrossing family saga [with] sparkling and imaginative prose. Shakespeare would applaud a man who does him so proud. "The Boston Globe"
""
Arthur Phillips has found the perfect vehicle for his cerebral talents: his ingenuity; his bright, elastic prose; and, most notably, his penchant for pastiche for pouring his copious literary gifts into old vessels and reinventing familiar genres. "The New York Times"
""
Devious and exhilarating . . . an irresistible family drama bundled into an exploration of fraud and authenticity. "The Wall Street Journal"
""
A circus of a novel, full of wit, pathos and irrepressible intelligence. Minneapolis "Star Tribune"
The story of a family that is Shakespearean in several senses . . . ["The Tragedy of Arthur"] contains literary echoes of Nabokov, Stoppard and even . . . Thomas Pynchon. "San Francisco Chronicle
""

[Balances] a moving story of familial and romantic love on a deliberately unsteady fictional edifice . . . [an] exuberant chimera of a novel. The New Yorker
Splendidly devious. The New York Times Book Review
Wily and witty . . . an engrossing family saga [with] sparkling and imaginative prose. Shakespeare would applaud a man who does him so proud. The Boston Globe

Arthur Phillips has found the perfect vehicle for his cerebral talents: his ingenuity; his bright, elastic prose; and, most notably, his penchant for pastiche for pouring his copious literary gifts into old vessels and reinventing familiar genres. The New York Times

Devious and exhilarating . . . an irresistible family drama bundled into an exploration of fraud and authenticity. The Wall Street Journal

A circus of a novel, full of wit, pathos and irrepressible intelligence. Minneapolis Star Tribune
The story of a family that is Shakespearean in several senses . . . [The Tragedy of Arthur] contains literary echoes of Nabokov, Stoppard and even . . . Thomas Pynchon. San Francisco Chronicle

"

"[Balances] a moving story of familial and romantic love on a deliberately unsteady fictional edifice . . . [an] exuberant chimera of a novel."--The New Yorker
"Splendidly devious."--The New York Times Book Review
"Wily and witty . . . an engrossing family saga [with] sparkling and imaginative prose. Shakespeare would applaud a man who does him so proud."--The Boston Globe

"Arthur Phillips has found the perfect vehicle for his cerebral talents: his ingenuity; his bright, elastic prose; and, most notably, his penchant for pastiche--for pouring his copious literary gifts into old vessels and reinventing familiar genres."--The New York Times

"Devious and exhilarating . . . an irresistible family drama bundled into an exploration of fraud and authenticity."--The Wall Street Journal

"A circus of a novel, full of wit, pathos and irrepressible intelligence."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"The story of a family that is Shakespearean in several senses . . . [The Tragedy of Arthur] contains literary echoes of Nabokov, Stoppard and even . . . Thomas Pynchon."--San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author:

Arthur Phillips is the internationally bestselling author of The Song Is You, which was a New York Times Notable Book and named one of the best novels of the year by The Washington Post; Angelica; The Egyptologist; and Prague, which was also a New York Times Notable Book and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. He lives in New York with his wife and two sons.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1400066476
• ISBN 13: 9781400066476
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368