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Im März 1978 ging Douglas Adams' klassischer interstellarer Anhalter-Reiseführer bei der BBC zum ersten Mal auf Sendung. Nun erscheint pünktlich zur 25-Jahr-Feier "Keine Panik!", die vergnüglich-chaotische Lebensgeschichte des Kult-Autors von Knüllern wie "Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis" und "Dirk Gentlys Holistische Detektei". Der Biograph Neil Gaiman, selbst bekannter Schriftsteller, schreibt mit Liebe zum skurrilen Detail und einem trockenen Humor, der sich vor Adams verneigt. show more Kleines Beispiel: "Was Douglas Adams in den Jahren zwischen Mitte 1977 und 1980 eigentlich machte, ist im nachhinein nicht mehr so leicht zu entwirren. Umso mehr ist hier über Adams' erste Texte und literarische Vorbilder zu erfahren (Kafka? Orwell? Nein: Adams beruft sich auf Captain W. E. John und noch einen anderen Autor, "den anscheinend niemand außer mir kennt".), über seine Berufserfahrungen als Hühnerstall-Ausmister und als Leibwächter einer arabischen Ölfamilie. Über die liebe Mühe mit dem Schreiben und über kläglich gescheiterte Projekte, wie z.B. die Ringo-Starr-Show, in der Ringo einen Chauffeur spielen sollte, der seinen Boss auf dem Rücken trägt. "Keine Panik!" ist natürlich auch die Erfolgsgeschichte von "Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis". Zuerst war da nur die besoffene Idee. Dann die BBC-Radioserie, die Romane, die Fernsehsendung und das Computerspiel. "Per Anhalter" ist sogar als Handtuch erschienen, aber immer noch nicht in den Kinos. Adams verkaufte die Filmrechte zwar schon 1982, schlug sich aber dann jahrelang und bis zuletzt mit verschiedenen Hollywood-Mogulen herum. Er starb im Mai 2001 mit 49 Jahren an einem Herzinfarkt. Nicht nur für Stephen Fry hat Adams "die Party viel zu früh verlassen". show lessTags
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Wilt was my first introduction to the written work of Tom Sharpe, or so I thought until a quarter of the way through, when I realized I had actually watched the film adaptation starring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones I couple of decades previous. Wilt drips with dry British humor that satirizes the cultural formalities and class division while somehow defending it at the same time. Wilt inadvertently frames himself for the murder of his wife - who isn't even dead, mind you - and through his constant attempts to clear his name provokes the reactionary disapproval of the local constabulary, his academic peers, and practically everybody else that gets drawn into the growing avalanche of complications. Things spin even further out of show more control when Wilt finds himself enjoying it. Yes, there is a blow-up sex doll involved, but the humor revolving dear Judy has less to do with its existence than the reaction to it. Wilt excels as a hilarious work also because the novel's hero Henry Wilt - beleaguered literature professor and married man - is just as off-kilter (if not more so) than the rest of characters galivanting through this comedy of errors. Fans of British humor will really get a kick out of Wilt. show less
Three stars rather than four because I read a later book in the series first, which took some of the edge off the escalation. Even so, the misunderstandings build well and several of the set pieces land, especially the ruder ones. I’ll happily read the rest of the series in order.
This is frickin hilarious. This chap named Henry Wilt is an instructor in a Technical College, in the Liberal Studies program, in Ipwell, and he teaches classes of Butcher Apprentices, Pipelayer Apprentices, Gaspipelayer Apprentices...well, you get the idea. He hands them out books like"Lord of the Flies," and he really hates his job. He hates his wife, he hates his life. Walking the dog while his wife does yoga at home, he fantasizes about murdering her. Henry Wilt will tell you"Be careful what you wish for." I will be reading Wilt No. 2.
C'est en sortant son chien que Wilt réfléchit à la méthode la plus efficace pour se débarrasser de sa femme, devenue bien trop encombrante à son goût. Wilt est à la croisée des chemins : professeur de culture générale dans un lycée technique pour étudiants demeurés, sa carrière est au point mort. Marié depuis bien trop longtemps à une femme frustrée et complexée, Wilt est en quête d'absolu. Il rêve de gloire, une gloire que le monde lui refuse depuis trop longtemps, et de crime, un crime dont il est sûr qu'il ferait craquer les derniers verrous qui ligotent son existence. Bref, Wilt est en crise, la crise de la quarantaine, identitaire et profonde mais incapable de prendre une décision radicale. La rencontre de sa show more femme avec une (fausse) riche voisine, adepte des jeux du sexe et des mauvais coups, va plonger la famille Wilt dans une centrifugeuse d'événements des plus inattendus... Tom Sharpe est sans aucun doute l'un des écrivains anglais les plus drôles de sa génération. Et Wilt l'idéale créature de son imaginaire littéraire. Cette critique de la déraison pure, drôle à souhait, n'en est pas moins une hilarante mais brillante mise en cause de notre société de consommation et des valeurs de la bourgeoisie. --Hector Chavez show less
Hilarious- vulgar - great. Wilt is introduced as fed up with his students - gas and steam fitters, butchers and other working class folk in London. His wife Eva- prey to every new fad- is befriended by kinky americans for touch therapy by the wife and then some. Ultimately Wilt dreams of killing his wife by throwing her down a hole in a construction site, but practices with a wife like plastic sex doll (of the new friends). He spends most of the book in jail being questioned by police for murder while his wife slowly learns the truth about her awful new friends. Over the top, irresistible.
Poor Henry Wilt. He’s in a dead-end job teaching blue collars at the local Tech, passed over for promotion, is married to Eva who has regular attempts at different fads before she meets the Pringsheims, an American couple who are very liberal. Meeting at a barbecue, Sally sets up Henry by getting him stuck in a blowup doll. She then tries to teach Eva touch therapy.
When I began reading the story, I couldn’t make out the genre. It felt like I was reading a soft porn novel but then it got really funny.
The plot was great and well written. It was a quick easy read and I was laughing out loud. Henry grew as a person and so did Eva. The characters were great. The only criticism would be the ending. After quite a buildup it felt as though show more it simply ended. show less
When I began reading the story, I couldn’t make out the genre. It felt like I was reading a soft porn novel but then it got really funny.
The plot was great and well written. It was a quick easy read and I was laughing out loud. Henry grew as a person and so did Eva. The characters were great. The only criticism would be the ending. After quite a buildup it felt as though show more it simply ended. show less
Perhaps it is the rave reviews this paperback comes equipped with that create a sense of resistance in me, but I didn’t find Wilt to be laugh-out-loud funny as some people seem to. The first two-thirds of the book are reasonably entertaining as a professor at a second- (or third-rate) British University finds himself accused of murder after a debauched party at the house of a visiting American professor. I’m not sure if author Sharpe intends for the American professor and his wife to be representative of Americans in general or just American academics, but they don’t have enough depth to them to rise above caricatures, and while their sniping at each other can be entertaining, it never rises to “Who’s Afraid of Virginia show more Woolf” levels. On the other hand, as the novel winds its way to its close, the character development of Wilt and his wife, Eva, is quite fascinating. Wilt’s unperturbed response to marathon questioning by the police reveals his character to be a lot tougher than we originally imagined, and his wife, despite Wilt’s opinion of her, shows a few strengths of her own.
All along, we have a subplot of inter-faculty squabbles about a new joint studies program, while the police are digging for the body in the background, as viewed by a lot of convenient windows. All in all, this seems rather a 1970s period piece with its talk of women's liberation and various sexual peccadilloes, but it has its rewards. show less
All along, we have a subplot of inter-faculty squabbles about a new joint studies program, while the police are digging for the body in the background, as viewed by a lot of convenient windows. All in all, this seems rather a 1970s period piece with its talk of women's liberation and various sexual peccadilloes, but it has its rewards. show less
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Author Information
40+ Works 13,823 Members
Thomas Ridley Sharpe (born March 30, 1928) was an English satirical author, best known for his Wilt series, as well as Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape, which were both adapted for British television. Sharpe died in Spain on June 6, 2013. He was 85 years old. (Bowker Author Biography)
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Trazo Libre (12)
Columna Jove (22)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Wilt
- Original title
- Wilt
- Original publication date
- 1976
- People/Characters
- Henry Wilt
- Related movies
- The Misadventures of Mr. Wilt (1989 | IMDb)
- First words
- Wenn Henry Wilt den Hund zu einem Spaziergang ausführte, oder richtiger, wenn der Hund ihn ausführte, oder um genauer zu sein, wenn Mrs. Wilt beiden sagte, sie sollten bloß sehen, dass sie aus dem Hause kämen, damit sie i... (show all)hre Yogaübungen machen konnte, schlug er stets denselben Weg ein.
Whenever Henry Wilt took the dog for a walk, or, to be more accurate, when the dog took him, or, to be exact, when Mrs Wilt told them both to go and take themselves out of the house so that she could do her yoga exercises, he... (show all) always took the same route. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And so the sun shone brighter, the sky was bluer, the flowers in the gardens were rosier and even Parkview Avenue itself seemed to have taken on a new and brighter aspect. It was one of Eva Wilt’s better days.
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