Thunder on the Left [Paperback]

Christopher Morley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000

'It is personal to every reader, it will become for every one a reflection of himself. I fancy that here, as always where work is fine and true, the author has created something not as he would but as he must, and here an interpreter of a world more wonderful than he himself knows.' Hugh Walpole

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: McIntosh and Otis Books (March 1, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 1892323885
• ISBN-13: 978-1892323880
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Moonshiny Book, February 13, 2000

By 

Gerard Hildebrand - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thunder on the Left (Sun & Moon Classics) (Paperback)

"If there were only one moonshiny night in each century, men would never be done talking of it. Old lying books would be consulted; in padded club chairs grizzled gentry whose grandfathers had witnessed it would prate of that milky perversion that once diluted the unmixed absolute of night. And those who had no vested gossip in the matter would proclaim it unlikely to recur, or impossible to have happened." Morley's novel is full of similar wonderful passages. It is also, metaphorically, the story of such a moonshiny night when Martin, the little boy who wanted to spy on adults to see if they were happy, appears as a boy in an adult's body. Things ensue at a leisurely (perhaps a little too leisurely) pace. While the writing at times is quite funny, the novel itself is full of sad whimsy. The novel asks, "What do we do to ourselves as we grow up?" Morley's novel, first published in the 1920's, is a wonderful book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantasy about a man who decides childhood will never end., August 6, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Thunder on the Left (Sun & Moon Classics) (Paperback)

No, this is not a political tract, but a novel by the man whose most famous work of fiction was "Kitty Foyle," later made into the film which brought an Academy Award to Ginger Rogers. "Thunder on the Left" begins when a child is having a birthday party. His guests discuss the joys of being young as compared with the nature of becoming an adult. The story then leaps several decades, to the same setting at a time when all the characters are grownups, except for the one who has stayed a boy. Morley may seem in certain ways to be an old fashioned author. This is a story that will never be irrelevant to the lives of all of us, however, and it is a marvelous book to read more than once. What a good idea for Sun & Moon Classics to publish it again after all these years in the darkest of the library stacks.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy and Imagination, Seriousness Coupled with Whimsy, February 17, 2008

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thunder on the Left (Sun & Moon Classics) (Hardcover)

Thunder on the Left has nothing to do with the contemporary, suspenseful primary elections; the erudite Christopher Morley's literary title makes reference to a Roman fancy that when men heard thunder on the left the gods had something of importance to impart to mankind. Thunder on the Left (1925) is a fantasy novel involving a shift in time, a young boy's refusal to age, and a disturbingly ambiguous look at adult life.

We first view the mysterious world of adults from the perspective of young children and maturing adolescents attending a birthday party for Martin. Subsequent chapters shift forward in time at which the children are now adults, and have through coincidence gathered again at the same locale, a large, rustic house somewhere in New England. One uninvited guest, a rather inexplicably naïve artist, is gradually exposed to the reader as none other than the young Martin, somehow transported into adulthood and yet still a child in his perspective and outlook.

The world of adults is uncomfortable. We encounter infidelity, disappointment, and ennui. And yet, Morley manages to avoid too much seriousness. Martin's naivety offers a whimsical balance that transforms this potentially grave analysis into a fascinating story, one that the reader will long remember.

Christopher Morley's best novels, including The Haunted Bookshop, Parnassus on Wheels, and Thunder on the Left, have remained popular for their intriguing perspectives, their ability to engage the readers, and for their whimsical seriousness.

My copy of Thunder on the Left was published by Sun & Moon Press, Los Angeles, in 1995.