The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B

J. P. Donleavy

Dez. 2007 · Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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The sexual odyssey of a hopeless romantic from the author of the legendary bestseller The Ginger Man—“a comic writer rivaling Waugh and Wodehouse” (Life).
 
In the years before and after World War II, Balthazar B is the world’s last shy, elegant young man. Born to riches in Paris and raised by his solicitous governess, Balthazar is shipped away to prep school in England where he is befriended by the noble but flagrantly naughty Beefy. Together, Balthazar and Beefy matriculate to Trinity College, Dublin. There, Balthazar reads zoology and Beefy prepares for holy orders, all the while sharing amorous adventures high and low until their university careers come to an abrupt and decidedly unholy end.
 
Out of the cocooned, innocent sexuality of Balthazar B, J. P. Donleavy—one of the most vital, and often condemned, comic voices of the twentieth century—created “one of the most perfect love affairs in modern literature . . . revelatory and delightful . . . lush and lovely, bawdy and sad” (The New York Times).
 
“If Nancy Mitford and James Joyce had collaborated, the result might have been like the adventures of Balthazar B.” —The Guardian

Autoren-Profil

J. P. Donleavy was born in New York City in 1926 and educated there and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1967 he became an Irish citizen. Donleavy is the author of The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B; The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman; A Fairy Tale of New York; Leila; and A Singular Man.