The Pianoplayers
by Anthony Burgess 
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Description
This novel is one of Anthony Burgess's most accessible and entertaining works. By turns bawdy, raucous, tender and bittersweet, and full of music and songs, this is a warm and affectionate portrait of the working-class Lancashire of the 1920s and 1930s that he knew from his own early life. The Pianoplayers is a funny, moving, autobiographical novel that brings to life the world of silent cinemas and music-halls of 1920s Manchester and Blackpool. Fully annotated and with a new introduction, show more this is an authoritative text for a new generation of readers. Part of the forthcoming Irwell Edition of the Works of Anthony Burgess, this book offers an opportunity to reappraise an unjustly neglected novel important to our understanding of Burgess's wider oeuvre. The 2017 Burgess centenary makes this a key moment for reflection on the life and work of a major figure in twentieth century letters. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Burgess is quite hit and miss, of course. Some of my favourite books are by Burgess, but some of my least favourite are too. The titillating cover drew me in. Part of my dissatisfaction might've been thinking there would be far more nunspoloitation and irreverent sex in convents when there was really none at all (the copy is very misleading, likely on purpose). Instead we have hebephilia aplenty, some jabs at the sex lives of Protestants, and a narrative style that just doesn't come off very well. You can see what he's trying to do, but it fails in pretty obvious ways. It was too bad.
Read This: This book is wonderfully written by a master of the English language. He writes in the first person as a girl, a difficult task for any man, but if you didn't know who wrote it, you wouldn't be able to tell. The book is entertaining and very interesting. It is very different from "A Clockwork Orange," which is good because here you can see the author's depth and amazing ability.
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Author Information
120+ Works 48,185 Members
Anthony Burgess was born in 1917 in Manchester, England. He studied language at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He had originally applied for a degree in music, but was unable to pass the entrance exams. Burgess considered himself a composer first, one who later turned to literature. Burgess' first novel, A Vision of Battlements show more (1964), was based on his experiences serving in the British Army. He is perhaps best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, which was later made into a movie by Stanley Kubrick. In addition to publishing several works of fiction, Burgess also published literary criticism and a linguistics primer. Some of his other titles include The Pianoplayers, This Man and Music, Enderby, The Kingdom of the Wicked, and Little Wilson and Big God. Burgess was living in Monaco when he died in 1993. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Anthony Burgess has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Pianoplayers
- Original title
- The Pianoplayers
- Original publication date
- 1986
- People/Characters
- Ellen Henshaw
- Important places
- Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK; Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK; London, England, UK; Singapore, Malaysia; Provence, France
- Dedication
- A Liana, che conosce tutta la scala cromatica dell'amore.
- First words
- You can see me any afternoon during the summer months, sitting at one of the tables in the square under the chestnut trees and taking a vanilla ice with a small whisky poured over it.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 311
- Popularity
- 102,348
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.44)
- Languages
- 6 — English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook
- ISBNs
- 17
- ASINs
- 5
