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Scoop: A Novel About Journalists

by Evelyn Waugh

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1,358	15	2,636	(3.99)	72

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Info:	Penguin Books Ltd (2000), Paperback, 240 pages
Member:	benskinner
Collections:	Your library	Rating:
Tags:	fiction, 20th century ad, 1930s, england, london, africa, humour, satire, journalism, war

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Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)

Lord Copper, newspaper magnate and proprietor of the Daily Beast, has always prided himself on his intuitive flair for spotting ace reporters. That is not to say he has not made the odd blunder, however, and may in a moment of weakness make another.Acting on a dinner-party tip from Mrs Algernon Smith, he feels convinced that he has hit on just the chap to cover a promising little war in the African Republic of Ishmaelia. One of Waugh's most exuberant comedies, Scoop is a brilliantly irreverentsatire of Fleet Street and its hectic pursuit of hot news.

edella | Jul 14, 2009 |

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benskinner | Jul 2, 2009 |

The "Catch-22" of journalism. Sharp and funny. (

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TheBentley | Jun 30, 2009 |

Hilarious satire of journalism. (

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xine2009 | Jun 13, 2009 |

A hilarious, satiric romp from London to the countryside to "Ishmaelia" in East Africa. Waugh's characters, use of language, and just plain good storytelling make this a great book! (

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hemlokgang | Apr 26, 2009 |

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Republic of Ishmaelia, East Africa

Fleet Street, London, UK

Important events

Awards and honors

The Modern Library's 100 Best Novels (The Board's List, 75)

The Observer's 100 Greatest Novels of All Time (2003)

Guardian 1000 (Comedy)

Epigraph

Dedication

For Laura

First words

While still a young man, John Courteney Boot had, as his publisher proclaimed, "achieved an assured and enviable position in contemporary letters."

Quotations

Why, once Jakes went out to cover a revolution in one of the Balkan capitals. He overslept in his carriage, woke up at the wrong station, didn't know any different, got out, went straight to a hotel, and cabled off a thousand-word story about barricades in the streets, flaming churches, machine guns answering the rattle of his typewriter as he wrote, a dead child, like a broken doll, spreadeagled in the deserted roadway before his window - you know.

There was something un-English and not quite right about 'the country', with its solitude and self-sufficiency, its bloody recreations, its darkness and silence and sudden, inexplicable noises; the kind of place where you never know from one minute to the next that you may not be tossed by a bull or pitchforked by a yokel or rolled over and broken up by a pack of hounds.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

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▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com (ISBN 0141184027, Paperback)

Evelyn Waugh was one of literature's great curmudgeons and a scathingly funny satirist. Scoop is a comedy of England's newspaper business of the 1930s and the story of William Boot, a innocent hick from the country who writes careful essays about the habits of the badger. Through a series of accidents and mistaken identity, Boot is hired as a war correspondent for a Fleet Street newspaper. The uncomprehending Boot is sent to the fictional African country of Ishmaelia to cover an expected revolution. Although he has no idea what he is doing and he can't understand the incomprehensible telegrams from his London editors, Boot eventually gets the big story.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:24 -0400)

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