Buy New

Quantity:

Buy Used

Used - Very Good See details

$5.23 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Fulfilled by Amazon

Express Checkout with PayPhrase

What's this? | Create PayPhrase

More Buying Choices

77 used & new from $1.23

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Share with Friends

Share your own customer images

Search inside this book

Tell the Publisher! I�d like to read this book on Kindle Don�t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.

Fool on the Hill: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "On a windless summer day in an uncertain year, more than a century after the founding of Cornell, a man who told lies for a..." (more)
Key Phrases: other sprites, white marble square, superior breed, The Hill, Shen Han, Jack Baron (more...)

4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (95 customer reviews)

List Price:	$15.00
Price:	$11.25 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save:	$3.75 (25%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Monday, November 23? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

29 new from $8.00 46 used from $1.23 2 collectible from $20.00

Formats		Amazon Price	New from	Used from
Hardcover Available from these sellers. Published September 30, 1988	Hardcover, September 30, 1988	--	$40.00	$12.75
	See # more hardcovers
	Show fewer hardcovers
Paperback $11.25 In Stock. Published December 7, 1997	Paperback, December 7, 1997	$11.25	$8.00	$1.23
	See # more paperbacks
	Show fewer paperbacks
Mass Market Paperback Available from these sellers. Published November 30, 1989 Mass Market Paperback: A smaller paperback commonly used for bestsellers and genre fiction.	Mass Market Paperback, November 30, 1989	--	--	$1.00

Frequently Bought Together

Price For All Three: $33.67

Show availability and shipping details

This item: Fool on the Hill: A Novel by Matt Ruff
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls by Matt Ruff
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (Public Works Trilogy) by Matt Ruff
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls

by Matt Ruff

4.5 out of 5 stars (47) $11.21

Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (Public Works Trilogy)

by Matt Ruff

3.0 out of 5 stars (10) $11.21

Bad Monkeys: A Novel (P.S.)

by Matt Ruff

4.0 out of 5 stars (69) $11.92

Sewer, Gas and Electric: THE PUBLIC WORKS TRILOGY

by Matt Ruff

3.9 out of 5 stars (55)

Foop!

by Chris Genoa

3.8 out of 5 stars (78) $11.92

› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This exuberant first novel unfolds at Cornell University, the alma mater of its 22-year-old author, who has re-imagined his school as the center of a violent and funny modern-day fairy tale. Stephen Titus George is a young writer longing for true love and a great story to tell. With the mysterious appearance of Calliope, a sorceress who can transform herself into anyone's vision of female perfection, both of his dreams begin to come true. Ruff shapes an adventure for his protagonist that includes everything from poisoned apples to winged dragons, all set on a campus where there isn't a professor in sight and where the actions of dogs, cats and invisible sprites are as meaningful as those of the students. On its way to a certain happy ending, the story falls short of its own ambitionsit's vastly overpopulated with extraneous characters (human and otherwise), and packed with self-conscious, punning references to everyone from Beckett to A. A. Milne. Too many of Ruff's narrative devices exist only to spotlight the author's cleverness, but at its best, his debut brims iwth good humor and imagination.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this comic fantasy a young writer-in-residence at Cornell University searches for true love and combats the forces of evil. Ruff uses the stock motifs of fairy tale and myth, but his treatment is remarkably inventive. Inspired by the mysterious Calliope, Ruff's hero learns to write without paper and thus, by the force of his imagination, to revise the mundane scenario of life in Ithaca. Aptly named S.T. George, he vanquishes a green canvas dragon and thereby foils the malignant plot of Rasferret the Grub. The multi-layered plot also includes animals who communicate by telepathy and tiny sprites with Shakespearean names. Ruff's exuberant tale will appeal strongly to readers with a taste for the fabulous. Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (December 8, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802135358
ISBN-13: 978-0802135353
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (95 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #289,454 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Matt Ruff Page

Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
On a windless summer day in an uncertain year, more than a century after the founding of Cornell, a man who told lies for a living climbed to the top of The Hill to fly a kite. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
other sprites, white marble square, superior breed, hangar doors

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Hill, Shen Han, Jack Baron, Tolkien House, Arts Quad, Rho Alpha Tau, Black Knight, Brian Garroway, Rasferret the Grub, Doctoral Candidate, Stephen George, Walter Smith, Bobby Shelton, Christopher Robin, Ezra Cornell, Fevre Dream, Nattie Hollister, Big People, The Commons, Constable Cyrus, West Campus, Blue Zebras, Green Dragon, Bill Chaney, Bohemian King

New!
Concordance | Text Stats

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 16 books:

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien on page 134
Romeo and Juliet (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare on page 199
Lord of the Rings (Spanish Edition) by J. R. R. Tolkien on page 134
On the Road by Kathy Hill on page 24
Second World War (What Families Were Like) by Fiona Reynoldson on page 35

See all 16 books this book cites

7 books cite this book:

The Little Country by Charles de Lint in Front Matter, and page 471
The Rise of Tolkienian Fantasy by Jared C. Lobdell on page 50, and Back Matter
Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls by Matt Ruff in Front Matter
Write Faster, Write Better by David Fryxell on page 208
Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (Public Works Trilogy) by Matt Ruff in Front Matter

See all 7 books citing this book

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	75% buy the item featured on this page: Fool on the Hill: A Novel 4.6 out of 5 stars (95) $11.25
	10% buy Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls 4.5 out of 5 stars (47) $11.21
	9% buy Bad Monkeys: A Novel (P.S.) 4.0 out of 5 stars (69) $11.92
	4% buy Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy (Public Works Trilogy) 3.0 out of 5 stars (10) $11.21

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

fiction(3)

matt ruff(3)

allegory(2)

contemporary fantasy(2)

bards and minstrels(1)

first novels(1)

literary(1)

magic carpet ride(1)

read - no audible(1)

trips and journeys(1)

Agree with these tags?

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 Reviews

95 Reviews

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (95 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wild ride of fun and fantasy!, December 23, 1999

By	Karen Bierman Hirsh (Greenwich, CT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I wrote a review of this book last year and I just re-read it again and wanted to remind people how fabulous this book is.

I discovered this book just after it was published and just before I got into Cornell and I have read it at least ten times since (I am just four years out of good 'ole Cornell). It it one of my favorite books as it combines true life in Ithaca with a world that you always hoped existed somewhere. It has something for everyone - as it combines several full lentgh stories, which could easily be read independently of one another, into an exciting and fun adventure. The Fool On The Hill was Ruff's senior thesis (if I am to believe a professor of his that supposedly helped get it published) - I felt that his book was so fabulous I went out and signed up for a course with his mentor.

If you buy this book, I guarantee that you will loan it out and have to re-purchase it as I know that I have gone through about 7 or 8 copies already. This book will touch the child in all of you.

The book focuses on S.T. George, a writer who finds his muse and loses her, a group of bohemian college students with some magic up their sleeves and a cat and dog on a journey to find "heaven" and rid the animal world of castes (pure-breds vs. mutts) and you kind kind-of get the idea behind Fool.... but it is really SO much more.

I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone that likes to daydream!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intricately spun fairy tale., June 8, 2001

By	Themis-Athena (from somewhere between California and Germany) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

"You GOTTA read this book," a friend and soon-to-be fellow-Cornellian said with some urgency when he learned that I had enrolled at Cornell University a couple of years ago. Devouring the book almost in one piece once I had started to read it, I soon understood what he meant.

As others have pointed out, this is not a book "about" Cornell - it just uses the campus and its own magic as a setting (although I confess there is a certain nostalgia to reading about the Arts Squad, McGraw Tower and The Hill - everyone who has walked up to the campus at least once knows why this noun deserves capitalization - and not only being able to visualize the scenery but also to drift off into your own memories of the place). This book is a fast-pace, hilarious tour de force interweaving fairy tales of modern-day humans, animals communicating by telepathy, ancient sprites and elfs and, of course, dragons - even if you're just using Cornell as your setting, there's gotta be a dragon in there somewhere.

Borrowing from virtually every writer from Shakespeare and Tolkien to the late 20th-century humorists, Ruff nevertheless manages to forge a style of his own and, in the process, conjures up a cast of funny, tragic and always highly unique and memorable characters - from Mr. Sunshine, the Greek Original who oversees and occasionally meddles with the development of the story, to Luther, the lovable, tragicomic canine hero in search of heaven, the Bohemian students, who enter the story with a bang in small-town Pennsylvania, and of course S.T. (St.) George, the hero and would-be dragon-slayer. - Two-dimensional characters? Predictable ending? Maybe, but who cares? This is, above all, a fairy tale and a farce, not a political satire or a high-brow tale on morals. Yes, Luther discovers that there are purebreds and non-purebreds and as a mongrel, he is not welcome in purebred society. Yes, there is the image of the monkeys in Mr. Sunshine's library whose random and meaningless meddling with life's stories creates chaos in everything they touch (and thus, invokes questions of fate, destiny and the meaning of life). But these are merely pieces of a mosaic; it doesn't do the book justice to reduce it to these details alone and then deplore that they are not fully developed, or that there is a lot of black-and-white painting going on. Have you ever seen a fairy tale where that's not the case?

So, let the book's magic touch you and let its elfs and sprites enchant you, join Luther and his tailless Manx friend Blackjack on their journey from New York City to heaven (or its closest approximation in Ithaca, NY), root for the Bohemians in their dispute with the Rat Frat, and watch George withstand Mr. Sunshine's meddling in his conquest of Aurora Borealis.

If it is true that Matt Ruff in later years disavowed this book, it would appear that Mr. Sunshine has done a bit of meddling here, too - ever since becoming an underground hit shortly after its publication, "Fool on the Hill" has developed an extremely loyal audience and a life of its own, and there's an obvious reason for this. For once, Mr. Sunshine's meddling was actually for the good... and I sincerely wish he's going to leave it at that. This book deserves all the success it has had and more!

Also recommended:
The Hobbit
A Midsummer Night's Dream (The New Folger Library Shakespeare)
Cornell Then & Now

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wild Fairy Tale Ride, March 12, 2002

By	Elizabeth Bronzino "Sensa" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fool on the Hill is one of the most inventive novels I've read in ages, and I very much enjoyed the comedic aspect of it. I think I actually laughed out loud once or twice. (High praise from me indeed. I haven't said that about any novel since Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore.)

I was afraid that Matt Ruff wasn't going to land his plane (err, kite) very well at the end because of the incredibly wild ride that we'd been on so far, but even there he pleasantly surprised me.

I highly recommend this book. Good characters, good scenery, inventive story (from sprites to evil ice birds to groups of animals having philosophical discussions to true love) -- all with a well-paced writing style and light-hearted sense of humor.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 95 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Fantasy
I am not usually a fantasy reader but I had read other books by Matt Ruff and enjoyed them, so I thought I give this a shot. So glad I did. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Dan Weitman

2.0 out of 5 stars Overly self-reflective novel from the age of post-modernism
I find it hard to bear when a novel starts to comment on its own plot and writing. Here, there is a whole plot sideline devoted to this, the all-knowing Mr. Read more

Published 7 months ago by komkon2

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful little story...
Ok, while the reviews are overwhelmingly positive - and I'm firmly in that camp - it's also clear that some people don't like this book. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Sean Marcoux

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty much awesome.
This book gains fantastic momentum. Good for readers who like a break from realitosis.

Published 12 months ago by Joshua Livasy

3.0 out of 5 stars compelling characters + brilliant storytelling = mediocre novel??!
I picked up this book because I'm nostalgic about Cornell and Ithaca. The details don't fail to bring back memories, from the DMO (Dish Machine Operations) in campus dining... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Robert Reid

4.0 out of 5 stars An Imaginative Declaration of Love to the Art of Writing, a College Story Full of Humor
The entire novel is a single apotheosis to the writing and writers. It is full of the strangest characters. Read more

Published on October 17, 2006 by ws__

4.0 out of 5 stars An ambitious first novel with a big, sweet heart
I have to hand it to Matt Ruff--when he set out to write his first novel, he aimed high. He's got everything but the kitchen sink in this book: ancient storytellers, dogs in... Read more

Published on July 24, 2006 by J. Lawrence

5.0 out of 5 stars Referential Literary Humor and Action
This novel is nothing less than unique. First off, it must be said that much of Matt Ruff's humor is made through direct and indirect literary references. Read more

Published on January 9, 2006 by Steveatty

4.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting, sweet, funny
Searching for a book that will enchant and uplift without being sappy or trite? Give this one a try. A sweet story with great characters that you can truly care about. Read more

Published on July 11, 2005 by Mona

2.0 out of 5 stars Waste of time
I just finished reading this book and was tremendously disappointed. I kept with it, thinking it would get better, and now wish I had put it down like previous reviewers had. Read more

Published on June 4, 2005 by Ursula Major

› See all 95 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }

Customer Discussions

This product's forum

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
literary fiction Three or more living authors you view as great	221	5 hours ago
literary fiction Modern emotional fiction-suggestions?	10	9 hours ago
fiction Have you written a book - tell us about it	1152	14 hours ago
fiction Are Literary Agents Good at Picking Novels Worth Publishing?	55	18 hours ago
literary Ebook Sample of Historical Fly-Fishing Novel	0	1 day ago
womens fiction women mystery writers	14	6 days ago
womens fiction Best historical novel on race, gender, class, sexuality?	5	6 days ago