Irascible and still lecherous at age 81, Sir John Falstaff, one of Shakespeareís greatest characters, spins out these memoirs as an antidote to legend, and in so doing manages to recreate his own. Set in an England that was earthy, violent, superstitious, and brimming with a new sense of national purpose, FALSTAFF brings to life not only the man himself but the whole Elizabethan era. Here we see what history and the Bard overlooked or purposely left out of his plays: what really happened that celebrated night when Falstaff and Justice Shallow heard the chimes at midnight; who killed Hotspur; how many men really fell at Agincourt; what actually transpired at the coronation of Henry V (ìHarry the Prigî) and much, much more!
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
First published in England in 1976 and long awaited by American fans of Nye's Mrs. Shakespeare: The Complete Works and The Late Mr. Shakespeare, this unabashedly bawdy and outrageously raunchy winner of the Hawthornden Prize and Guardian Fiction Prize is a takeoff on such classic literary erotica as Fielding's Tom Jones and Cleland's Fanny Hill. The novel unfolds as the true-life memoirs of one of the Immortal Bard's most memorable characters, the feckless soldier of fortune Falstaff, aka Sir John Fastolf, based upon a real-life knight reputed to be cowardly. Dictated to various household secretaries as he is nearing death at age 81, Falstaff's fictional memoir opens with the extravagant claim that he was conceived under a fig tree planted on the phallus of the legendary figure of the giant of Cerne carved into the chalk hillside near Cerne Abbas in Dorset. Now an octogenarian, the old rooster gleefully crows about the size of his own member and a sexual dalliance with his 15-year-old niece. Graphically chronicling seven decades of debauchery, Nye revisits Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I depiction of Falstaff as the father figure for young Prince Hal (soon to become Henry V), who publicly rejects him along with his rather reprehensible companions when fickle Hal assumes the throne following his father's death (Henry IV, Part 2). Purporting to set history aright, the narrative offers a Walter Mittyesque version of the infamous rogue's exploits in the boudoir and battlefield. Annotated with snide naysaying asides from his stepson, this delightfully raucous, slyly insightful fable gently closes the book on Falstaff as a bittersweet metaphor for the foibles of everyman.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.About the Author
A novelist and poet, Robert Nye was born in London and now makes his home in County Cork, Ireland.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Desdemona, a word in your ear...,
By
This review is from: Falstaff: A Novel (Paperback)
Falstaff, Prince Hal's bawdy mentor and pal in HENRY IV, was one of Shakespeare's more wonderful creations. Sadly, he was killed off at the beginning of the sequel, HENRY V, consumed of an affliction known as Drink in a room above Boar's Head tavern, thus depriving centuries of readers of all that might have been.Robert Nye resurrects him here. And he does it in a most ambitiously imaginative style. Having drunk from the elixir of life, our hero, at the ripe old age of 81, is every bit the endearingly outrageous blow-hard that Shakespeare created. He laments, "-here I am, an old man in a dry month, having fought in the warm rain with Miranda yesterday, and at the hot gates of Harfleur and Hell with Harry Monmouth and the pride of England, heaving a cutlass, all that - here I am, employing my days in this making of Days, in this long act of recall of my youth and other follies. It is no occupation for a gentleman." For certain it is not. In fact, it's in the Gentlemanly Manners department that he invariably comes up a little slack-eyed. Nye's Falstaff is, in short, a Dirty Old Man. The novel has a fine beginning, though - Falstaff, dictating to five recruited & variously abused "secretaries," chronicles his origins. He claims to have descended from, amongst other colorful figures, a certain Gurth Fastolf, who fought for King Harold- "the story that he obtained (William the Conqueror's) favour by leading a miscellany of Saxons in the wrong direction - to wit, over a cliff on an escarpment near Dover, at the time of the skirmish at Hastings - is absolutely without foundation. It is, in short, a lie put about by envious neighbours whose talents were never so complex as to catch the eye of William's wife Matilda, a dumpy woman but not beneath my great great great great grand-dad's notice." One cannot deny that the language throughout this novel is lively and amusing. And Nye seems to have no problem at all keeping up with it. The sideline tangents into various points in history - such as the Black Death and Pope Joan - mesh well with the battles and other momentous historical events, as seen through the eyes of Falstaff, taking place during the respective reigns of Henry IV and his son Hal (Henry V). It is actually in the extraneous chapters, which all said comprise between 1/4 and 1/3 of the book, where I must draw my censure. Throughout this novel, there are so many superfluous and long-winded stretches dedicated to such things as bodily functions, parts of the anatomy, and licentious sexual activity, that I inevitably came to a point where I couldn't read another word of such stuffing without rolling my eyes in profound exasperation, proceeding then to just skim right over it. However, the chapters detailing Falstaff's part(s) in the battle of Gadshill, his invocation of Clio the muse of history, honor & onions, the number 7, and his own soul were entertaining. The chapters dedicated to anything surrounding the battles of Shrewsbury or Agincourt, as well as the evolution of Falstaff's relationship with Prince Hal, were poignant and bittersweet. Through the course of the novel, the reader develops a warm affection for each of the five "secretaries," too - even Falstaff's malicious stepson, Stephen Scrope. (In fact, Scrope may well be the embodiment of Reader's Revenge for the bulk of the braggart Falstaff's excessive wordage). All in all, I would still give Mr. Nye's book 3.5 stars. By the later chapters of Falstaff's Book of Days, I had actually come to look forward to reading the ornery old man's tall-tale narrative.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Falstaff lives again,
By
This review is from: Falstaff: A Novel (Paperback)
Shakespeare killed off one of his most interesting characters in Henry V, but Robert Nye has brought him wonderfully to life again in this marvellous novel. Written in the form of an autobiography, it mingles the life of Shaeksepare's fiction Falstaff with the real-life Sir John Fastolff of Norfolk. His reminiscenses are funny, bawdy, dramatic and sometimes moving, as when he describes villagers dying of the Black Death, or the wretched victims of a long and bitter seige. His amorous adventures are described in some detail, a lot of ladies benefit from his attentions in the course of his long and very active life, his wedding night in the snow sounds chilly, but interesting. His brief encounters with Joan of Arc are startlingly dramatic (no, he doesn't sleep with her, even Robert Nye draws the line somewhere). This is a long, absorbing, fascinating and very funny novel.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gamahuche,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Falstaff: A Novel (Paperback)
Falstaff has always been one of Shakespeare's more interesting and entertaining characters - and critic Harold Bloom's childhood favourite - so it's a pleasure to see him not killed off at all, but as an alive (though not so very well) octogenarian recounting his fictionalised life con brio.Yes, as another reviewer has noted, there is perhaps an excess of bawdiness here (What else should one expect from Falstaff?!?). But, curiously, for this reader, I never found these, ahem, drawn out passages prurient or erotic. They were too ridiculous. In short, I invariably found myself laughing. I don't think the prudish really need any warning about these passages - one would think - if they're at all familiar with the Falstaffian character. In any event, Nye's Falstaff proclaims early on (Chapter V) that: "It is my intention in writing these memorials to set down EVERYTHING. If that diet of experience proves too rich or strange a meal for some stomachs, then, Eat elsewhere, is my advice, and wish you better appetites." He might have said everything and then some. A personal impression -- it's no surprise at all to me that Nye also writes children's books. Falstaff's description of his childhood here is lovely and poetic, and, with his "Hey diddle diddle!" and suchlike interjections strewn throughout the book, he reminds me of nothing so much as a Tolkien's Tom Bombadil, with the bawdy parts thrown in (Not, for the record, that I regard Tolkien's work as merely for children.). Nye's Falstaff is not all about bawdiness, of course. He offers profound reflections on war, life, death, love etc. In the end, one comes away loving the fellow with all his faults and exaggerations - One is very sorry to see him go. But, as Falstaff says here: "Everything is suddener than we think." The title of this review is a word I picked up here. I'm being mischievous, I suppose, in using it.....Falstaffian even!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
