Showing results for "Freaks" in World Literature

The Freaks of Mayfair by E.F. Benson is a series of satirical sketches introducing us to some bizarre inhabitants of Edwardian High Society of Mayfair, which was, and still is today, the stamping ground of the very wealthy. Each sketch introduces a different type of "freak". Sir Louis and Lady Mary Marigold turn snobbism into fine art; Sarah Whitehand is the social-climbing wife of an American toilet bowl magnate, and the so-called "Grizzly Kittens", Babs Begum and Charlie Gordon, cling desperately to their youth as they totter toward old age.

With tongue firmly implanted in cheek, Benson introduces us to a world full of snobs, hypochondriacs, faddists, and social climbers. Some of the titles include "The Compleat Snob", "Aunt Georgie", "The Poison of Asps", "The Eternally Uncompromised", "The Grizzly Kittens", and "The Praisers of Past Time".

In einer kleinen Stadt in Kentucky haben sich fünf Außenseiter gefunden: Opal, eine 80jährige, die in einem Sex-Pistols-T-Shirt und in Cowboystiefeln herumläuft (gelesen von Cordula Trantow); Aurora, eine wunderschöne Frau im Rollstuhl (gelesen von Cosma Shiva Hagen); Ray, ein junger Iraker auf der Suche nach dem Amerikaner, den er im 1. Golfkrieg verwundet hat (gelesen von Feridun Zaimoglu); Ember, ein frühreifes kleines Mädchen (gelesen von Charlotte Roche) und Luster, ein extrem wortgewandter Afroamerikaner, der ständig auf Drogen zu sein scheint, tatsächlich aber völlig nüchtern durchs Leben geht (gelesen von Jan Josef Liefers).

... mi sarebbe piaciuto incontrare un tipo come Samuel Johnson. Ambire all’altezza di quel formidabile biografo che fu James Boswell. I miracoli purtroppo non ammettono repliche... G.M.

This full arc of life—bigger than imagination in a raging fire—is set on paper by a poet obsessed with beauty, hooves, and the passion of flight.... In Lifshin’s language, spare yet metaphorically profound, we enter into that animal grace that only a true poet can convey, as we race on from poem to poem, joining Secretariat in triumph—'not for a win but a coronation'.