A classic of fantastic literature, Leonora
Carrington's ''The Hearing Trumpet'' is the occult twin
to ''Alice in Wonderland'', published with an
introduction by Ali Smith in Penguin Modern Classics.
One of the first things ninety-two-year-old Marian
Leatherby overhears when she is given an ornate hearing
trumpet is her family plotting to commit her to an
institution. Soon, she finds herself trapped in a
sinister retirement home, where the elderly must inhabit
buildings shaped like igloos and birthday cakes, endure
twisted religious preaching and eat in a canteen
overlooked by the mysterious portrait of a leering
Abbess. But when another resident secretly hands Marian
a book recounding the life of the Abbess, a joyous and
brilliantly surreal adventure begins to unfold. Written
in the early 1960s, ''The Hearing Trumpet'' remains one
of the most original and inspirational of all fantastic
novels. Leonora Carrington (1[zasłonięte]917-20) was a British
born Surrealist painter and writer described, alongside
people such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro, as one of
the leading lights of the Surrealist movement.Born in
Lancashire to a strict Catholic family, she first came
into contact with surrealism through her lover,
Surrealist painter Max Ernst, before moving to Mexico in
1942. ''The Hearing Trumpet'', her most famous piece of
writing, was first published in France in 1974. If you
enjoyed ''The Hearing Trumpet'', you might like Fernando
Pessoa's ''The Book of Disquiet'', also available in
Penguin Modern Classics. ''Reading ''The Hearing
Trumpet'' liberates us from the miserable reality of our
days''. (Luis Bunuel). ''One of the most original,
joyful, satisfying and quietly visionary novels of the
twentieth century''. (Ali Smith). ''This book is so
inspiring...I love its freedom, its humour and how it
invents its own laws. What specifically do I take from
her? Her wig''. (Bjork). |
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