Liar (original 1991; edition 2004)

by Stephen Fry

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
3,209	40	4,143	(3.6)	98
Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML: *An "outrageously hilarious" novel about a young man who has trouble with the truth (The Boston Globe).* Adrian Healey loves to lie. He does it all the time. Every minute, every moment. And worse, he does it wonderfully, imaginatively, brilliantly. He lies to buck the system, to express his contempt for convention, but mostly because he just plain likes to. It's fun. He invents a lost pornographic novel by Charles Dickens, and, for himself, a career as a Piccadilly rent boy, hireable by the hour. But Adrian's lies eventually bring true danger, as he finds himself caught up in the machinations of a shadowy network that puts his own life at risk, in this "clever and entertaining novel that will appeal to Anglophiles with a twisted sense of humor" (Library Journal). .… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	jkisgen
Title:	Liar
Authors:	Stephen Fry
Info:	ARROW (RAND) (2004), Paperback, 368 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

The Liar by Stephen Fry (1991)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

melmtp, guttmano, philcbull, NorpchenSparks, gone_grayer, booksatlast, pausam, nickmurphy30, marita_p, theLackwit

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

10
The Complete Saki by H. H. Munro (sibyllacumaea)
00
Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw (MinaKelly)

▾Lists

Best LGBT Fiction (47)

Best Satire (114)

United Kingdom (57)

» 1 more

KayStJ's to-read list (989)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 98 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (39) Hebrew (1) All languages (40)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 39 (next | show all)

This book was expectedly hilarious and well written. The nonlinear storytelling was fun and engaging and kept me wondering what was going on just enough to stay engaged.

I will warn that it requires a small amount of knowledge of German at certain points to know exactly what's going on but its not essential to enjoy the book. (

)

boredwillow | Mar 4, 2023 |

A rather confusing tale- short passages of mysterious spy stuff interspersed with the career of 'hero' Adrian Healey, as he makes his way (intelligent, witty and full of youithful lust for his fellow schoolboys) through boarding school and on to uni. But how much of the colourful account is even true?
Generally well-written and entertaining; the spy stuff (and the cricket scene) seemed to go on forever, but it did have a clever ending... (

)

starbox | Aug 21, 2020 |

I am a big fan of Fry, the man is almost a nation institution now. I had read his biography last year, and though that it was great.

However, this book, I just could not get on with. I couldn't get the characters, the plot was not twisted, it was muddled, and it took 200 pages or so for me to begin to enjoy it.

I think that it was supposed to full of erudite wit and humour, but it just washed over me. (

)

PDCRead | Apr 6, 2020 |

A light parlour-game of a book: inconsequential and the extent to which you will enjoy it depends on your tolerance for that kind of thing. For my part, a large chunk of the book revolves around things which I have no interest in – public school, cricket and homosexuality – even if it is redeemed to some extent by two things I am interested in – brevity and wordplay. Fry can write, but the book is a strange one, with weird, meandering plots and characters who don't transcend their function. And a lot of it is misdirection (hence the 'Liar' of the title), meaning the reader's endeavour is often pointless. The whole thing makes sense at the end, but the end is a long time to wait when you don't like what's going on, or even know what is going on. (

)

MikeFutcher | May 29, 2018 |

Very strange storyline. Enjoyed parts of it, but the last third seemed really disconnected from the rest of the book.

Oh, and for some reason I really wanted to see Hugo&Adrien together. (

)

newcastlee | Dec 30, 2017 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 39 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (20 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Stephen Fry	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Becker, Royce	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Aufbau Taschenbuch (1950)

Heyne Allgemeine Reihe (9762)

Is contained in

The Liar/The Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry

▾Awards and Honors

Notable Lists

13 novels set in Cambridgeshire to enjoy this National Book Lovers' Day (The laugh-out-louds)

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK

Important events

England beat Australia at Cricket (1981)

Related movies

The Liar (post-production | IMDb)

Epigraph

Dedication

To .........................................

(insert full name here)

First words

A Fame T-shirt stopped outside the house where Mozart was born.

Quotations

Last words

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

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Joe Keenan

Rita Rudner

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

The Liar (novel)

▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Literature. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:

An "outrageously hilarious" novel about a young man who has trouble with the truth (The Boston Globe).

Adrian Healey loves to lie. He does it all the time. Every minute, every moment. And worse, he does it wonderfully, imaginatively, brilliantly. He lies to buck the system, to express his contempt for convention, but mostly because he just plain likes to. It's fun.

He invents a lost pornographic novel by Charles Dickens, and, for himself, a career as a Piccadilly rent boy, hireable by the hour. But Adrian's lies eventually bring true danger, as he finds himself caught up in the machinations of a shadowy network that puts his own life at risk, in this "clever and entertaining novel that will appeal to Anglophiles with a twisted sense of humor" (Library Journal).

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary