Description

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The cult favorite absurdist comedy by a writer who inspired Wilde, Forster, and Waugh

The fairly young and entirely alive Mrs. Shamefoot wants nothing more than to have a memorial stained-glass window installed in her honor in an English cathedral. From this premise, the inimitable Ronald Firbank extends his witty, eccentric Vainglory, with a crowded cast of hilariously drawn characters—Winsome Brooks, Lady Anne Pantry, Miss Wookie, Mrs. Barrow of Dawn, and Mrs. Steeple, among others—a riot of parties, and a bottomless sense of the ridiculous. Firbank's fine comic skill, quick-fire dialogue, and descriptive flights of fancy are perfectly captured inVainglory, his first and longest novel, as well as in two novellas included here, Inclinations and Caprice.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About the Author

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Ronald Firbank (1886–1926) wrote Valmouth, The Princess Zabaroff, The Flower Beneath the Foot, Sorrow in Sunlight, and Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli, among other works.

Richard Canning has edited several anthologies of gay fiction and was the recipient of the 2005 Editors Choice Award from the Lambda Literary Foundation.