A Strong Man Needed

[spine just a bit turned, small dent in top edge of front cover, minor fraying at spine ends; jacket bright and attractive in spite of a bit of irregular fading along the spine and a touch of creasing at top of spine]. The first novel by this English journalist and short-story writer, a rather self-consciously "madcap" satire: the jacket blurb promises "amazing swoops of cuckoo fun and general insanities, and at the same time grand satire and a healthy if absurd romance." The wackiness centers around the Cadwallows, who in addition to being "one of the noblest and nuttiest families in England" also happen to be teetering on the brink of impoverishment. Potential salvation from their financial plight arrives in the person of Miss Wilhelmina Harkaway, known as "Bill," a nine-foot-tall giantess who has been brought from Australia by the family's youngest son. She is readily adopted by the Cadwallow clan, and with the patronage of a wealthy (and even more eccentric) friend, a scheme is hatched to launch her on a prizefighting career, and thereby reap a fortune. (This isn't due to any discernible skill on her part in that regard, or even to any inherent combativeness in her nature -- she's really quite a nice young lady of nineteen -- but simply because, well, it's that kind of book.) Not surprisingly, her enormous size and commensurate strength permits her to defeat all challengers, and in no time at all she becomes a somewhat freakish celebrity, even at one point going on an American tour. The human-freak-boxing angle is of interest, as the author did a little amateur boxing himself as a young man and later garnered praise for a series of short fantasy stories about a "dwarf surrealist boxer" named Engelbrecht. [This item is featured in ReadInk's E-Catalog 3.1, which can be perused in full at our website. (Not everything in that catalog is listed on whatever site you're seeing this.)]

Product Info

Publisher: Horace Liveright, Inc.

Year: (c.1932)

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

First Edition

Seller Info

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