|
"It is a tribute to Nye's achievement that we shall not be able to meet the great original again without thinking of this other Fallestelf or Farstalff."--Anthony Burgess Winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize The most beloved comic figure in English literature decides that history hasn't done him justice--it's time for him to tell the whole unbuttoned story, his way. Irascible and still lecherous at eighty-one, Falstaff spins out these outrageously bawdy memoirs as an antidote to legend, and in the process manages to recreate his own. This splendidly written novel is a feast, opening wide the look and feel of another age and bringing Shakespeare's Falstaff to life in a totally new way. Like Jack Falstaff himself, it's sprawling, vivid, oversized--big as life. We return in an instant to an England that was ribald, violent, superstitious, coursing with high spirits and a fresh sense of national purpose. We see what history and the Bard of Avon overlooked or avoided: what really happened that celebrated night at the windmill when Falstaff and Justice Shallow heard the chimes at midnight; who really killed Hotspur; how many men fell at the Battle of Agincourt; what actually transpired at the coronation of Henry V ("Harry the Prig"); and just what it was that made the wives of Windsor so very merry. Falstaff "tells all" about Prince Hal, John of Gaunt ("that maniac"), Pistol, Bardolph, Doll Tearsheet, and Jane Nightwork. At the same time, his racy narrative offers us a tapestry of the Middle Ages: the Black Death and May Day; an expedition to Ireland and a pilgrimage to the Holy L∧ nights at the Boar's Head; the splendor of London Brid≥ and hundreds of other sights and sounds and people zestfully recalled between scabrous opinions and irreverent meditations--in sum, the very flavor of a great age. The voice is unmistakably Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- CONTENTS -- I: About the begetting of Sir John Fastolf -- II: About a genealogy refused -- III: About the birth of Sir John Fastolf -- IV: About the games of Sir John Fastolf when he was young -- V: About the tutor Ravenstone & -- the whip -- VI: About Sir John Fastolfs mother & -- the amorous vision -- VII: About Pope Joan (Mary Fastolfs tale) -- VIII: About the Duke of Hell -- IX: About the number 100 & -- other numbers -- X: Sir John Fastolf's invocation of Clio, Muse of History -- XI: About Sir John Fastolf's belly & -- his rat -- XII: About an indignity suffered by Sir John Fastolf at the hands of the Duchess of Norfolk -- XIII: About a menu -- XIV: How Sir John Fastolf went to war & -- about the sea fight at Slugs -- XV: About the sea fight continued, & -- how: Sir John Fastolf made his name terrible: to the enemy -- XVI: Sir John Fastolf's cursing of the cook -- XVII: How Sir John Fastolf was apprenticed monk -- XVIII: About Badby & -- the barrel -- XIX: About the death of Sir John Fastolf" s father -- XX: How Sir John Fastolf undressed himself of his suit of virgin white -- XXI: How Sir John Fastolf came to London, & -- his praise of London Bridge -- XXII: The art of farting: an aside of Sir John Fastolf's -- XXIII: About King Brokenanus & -- his 24 sainted sons & -- daughters -- XXIV: About St George's Day & -- flagellants & -- the earthly paradise -- XXV: How Sir John Fastolf broke Skogaris head -- XXVI: A parallel adventure: Mr Robert Shallow v. Mr Sampson Stockfish -- XXVII: About swinge-bucklers & -- bona-robas -- XXVIII: About some more figs -- XXIX: About great events in the wide world -- XXX: Sir John Fastolf's humble address to his readers -- XXXI: Lord Grey of Ruthin to the Prince of Wales.
|
