MISTER JOHNSON PA (MOVIE EDN) - Couverture souple

CARY, J

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0811211746 ISBN 13 : 9780811211741

Editeur : New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1991

Synopsis

Book by Cary Joyce

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

“A wonderfully evocative portrait of a bygone colonial life... Mr Johnson, in short is a great literary creation; he can safely take his place beside any of the characters world literature has presented us with: from Falstaff to Zeno, from Candide to Humbert Humbert.”
William Boyd

“A beautifully written, absorbing story which I trust will serve to bring many new readers to this magnificent novelist.”
Sunday Times

Willing, warm-hearted and thoroughly incompetent, Mr Johnson, a minor government clerk on probation at the outpost of Fada, Nigeria, entertains poetic notions of grandeur and glory as he bumbles his way free-spiritedly through the trials and tribulations of life.

He may not spell accurately, but he writes a beautiful hand. He may not file very well, but he replaces expertise with enthusiasm. Indeed, he may drive his employers wild with exasperation, but there is something about having Johnson around the place: his ingenuousness is so touching, his optimism so infectious. To the core he is an official of the British Colonial Service.

He knows he has a duty to be well-turned out in the European manner, that his wife must wear English gowns whether she likes it or not, and that they are obliged as a couple to entertain lavishly on every conceivable occasion. Every tradesman in town knows how seriously Johnson takes these duties; every tradesman in town has a ledger full of his debts. Undaunted by these numerous debts, Johnson pays a small fortune to marry the voluptuous village girl, Bamu. But while he tenderly dreams of transforming her into a civilized lady – as befitting a man of his wisdom and taste – the self-possessed beauty in question has other ideas…

Biographie de l'auteur :

Joyce Cary was born in 1888 into an old Anglo-Irish family and educated at Clifton. He studied art, first in Edinburgh and then in Paris, before going up to Trinity College, Oxford, in 1909 to read law. On coming down he served as a Red Cross orderly in the Balkan War of 1912-13, the inspiration for Memoir of the Bobotes, before joining the Nigerian Political Service.

He served in the Nigeria Regiment during the First World War, was wounded while fighting in the Cameroons, and returned to civil duty in Nigeria in 1917 as a district officer. His time in Africa provided the inspiration for his first four novels. Though he settled in Oxford as a full-time writer in 1920, it was not until 1932 that his first book was published. At the time of his death in 1957, he was recognised as one of the leading novelists in the world.

Cary is probably best known as a novelist and especially for Mister Johnson and ‘The First Triptych’ (Herself Surprised, To Be a Pilgrim and The Horse’s Mouth) in which the three main protagonists narrate their interlocking experiences and reveal their contrasting personalities. However he was also a fine short story writer, essayist and poet.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Date d'édition: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0811211746
• ISBN 13: 9780811211741
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 234