Waking Beauty [Paperback]

Paul Witcover (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 1998

This visionary debut spans the uncommon range of Anne Rice's voluptuous darkness, Salman Rushdie's literary provocation and Quentin Tarantino's violent hipness

What is Beauty?

To the men of the Hierarchate, it is death...and worse than death: A scent that rises each evening from the depths of the forest called Herwood, luring them to eternal damnation. To the women of the Hierarchate, Beauty is a rival, an enemy to be fought tooth and nail. Each night, the women bind their men, plugging their nostrils to protect them from the evil scent and keep close watch over their sleep.

In this astonishing first novel, part parable, part fantasy and all erotic adventure, Paul Witcover transports readers to an awesome world where the visionary and the voluptuous are at war. It is a world deeply strange and strangely familiar, a new literary landscape lying somewhere between the fabulous realms of Anne Rice and Salman Rushdie.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harper Voyager (February 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061053384
• ISBN-13: 978-0061053382
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,753,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A startling work of genius, January 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Waking Beauty (Paperback)

If you must choose only one book to read this whole year, please make it WAKING BEAUTY by Paul Witcover. This is a feast of erotic literary fantasy, a horn of macabre plenty, a burst of truth, exquisite sadness and winged joy, a chord of acute intensity that pulls at you and stays with you always. I am still in awe of it.... And I cannot believe that this is a first novel! Paul Witcover is a true original.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Vathek" for the 90s!, July 30, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Waking Beauty (Hardcover)

Despite a silly dust jacket summary which has almost nothing to do with the plot of the book itself, "Waking Beauty" is an extraordinary first effort. Bizarre, fantastic, and sometimes grotesque (in the truest sense of the word)this book has a lot in common with gothic writers such as William Beckford, Lord Byron and Clark Ashton Smith. Witcover's rococco writing style is perfectly suited to his sumptuous exploration of the vectors of power, love and sacrifice, qualities which in his world are literally written upon the bodies of his characters. His characterizations are strong and sharp, and, unusual for his genre, the female protagonists take up most of the center stage. The action comes lickety-split, leaving the reader breathless by the novel's end--and hopeful there will be a sequel. "Waking Beauty" is not a facile book. Underneath the glittering prose and byzantine plot, "Waking Beauty" is deeply concerned with the interplay of power and domination, greed and ambition, and perhaps most importantly, love in all its many guises. Witcover is more than up to the challenge of translating these abstract ideologies into an entertaining, imaginative ripping good read. "Waking Beauty" transcends the "fantasy" genre, and sets Witcover in a class with such "literary-fantasy" writers as A.S. Byatt, Angela Carter and C.S. Lewis. Though the action of this novel may be set in the fantastic, the underpinnings of Witcover's world is all too familiar. By far, one the best novels of the year.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother to read the Blurb on the sleeve, February 26, 2000

By 

Akemi "Music Obsessed Person" (Rockland, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waking Beauty (Paperback)

Because it's wrong. It makes it sound like some sort of dull love triangle when really the book is much more than that. It weaves this strange and fascinating topsy turvy world in a way that is rare in most books nowadays. It's delightfully sensual and has unique images.