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4th out of 2,610 books
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917 voters
The Horse's Mouth (Triptych #3)
The Horse's Mouth, the third and most celebrated volume of Joyce Cary's First Trilogy, is perhaps the finest novel ever written about an artist. Its painter hero, the charming and larcenous Gulley Jimson, has an insatiable genius for creation and a no less remarkable appetite for destruction. Is he a great artist? a has-been? or an exhausted, drunken ne'er-do-well? He is w...more
Paperback, 432 pages
Published
October 31st 1999
by NYRB Classics
(first published 1944)
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I've read The Horse's Mouth about four times since I discovered it through the film adaptation written by and staring the incomparable Alec Guinness. I'm still baffled how a book can be so hillarious even while referencing William Blake and Spinoza all over the place. I don't know how a writer goes about creating the kinds of majestic sentences and authentic characters and vivid images that fill this book. I've read a bunch of other works by Joyce Cary and had extremely varied reactions to them....more
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Gulley Jimson is one of the great literary creations, and as many times as I've read this novel, Gulley still appears as unique and unpredictable as he did the first time I read it. Joyce Cary's novels aren't as popular as they once were, but his First Trilogy remains a timeless masterpiece. I read the series backwards, it seems, for this is the third (and my favorite) novel. It's one of the finest descriptions of an artist and the artistic process ever written, in my opinion.
Oh, and as an asid...more
Oh, and as an asid...more
The painter Gulley Jimson is a soundrel, and no mistake. He would not be judged either a good man or a success, yet he has a talent and an appetite for living.
Joyce Cary's trilogy was good, better, and this, the third book, best for me. At the same time, all three now beg to be read again--the different points of view (Sara, then Tom, then Gulley), filled in by each character's separate inclinations, prejudices and intentions, would illuminate especially Sara's story, Herself Surprised.
None of t...more
Joyce Cary's trilogy was good, better, and this, the third book, best for me. At the same time, all three now beg to be read again--the different points of view (Sara, then Tom, then Gulley), filled in by each character's separate inclinations, prejudices and intentions, would illuminate especially Sara's story, Herself Surprised.
None of t...more
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THE HORSE’S MOUTH. (1944). Joyce Carey. ****.
This is my second read of this novel that I first read during the 1960s. It was the third novel in a tryptich of novels by this author that included “Herself Surprised” (1941). and “To Be A Pilgrim” (1942). Each of the novels contains, supposedly, the same cast of characters, but the story is told by a different one of them in each. In this novel, you will meet Gully Jimson, a 68-year-old artist – of sorts. You will not meet anyone like Gully in any...more
This is my second read of this novel that I first read during the 1960s. It was the third novel in a tryptich of novels by this author that included “Herself Surprised” (1941). and “To Be A Pilgrim” (1942). Each of the novels contains, supposedly, the same cast of characters, but the story is told by a different one of them in each. In this novel, you will meet Gully Jimson, a 68-year-old artist – of sorts. You will not meet anyone like Gully in any...more
"Remember I'm an artist. And you know what that means in a court of law. Next worst to an actress." --Some words from the many of Gully Jimson in The Horse's Mouth.
There are two English novels that may give some profound insight into the artistic mind. I say “may” because how the hell am I supposed to know to a certainty, not being an artist myself. Those two novels in question are The Horse's Mouth and The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham. You will forgive me, I am sure, if I do not inc...more
There are two English novels that may give some profound insight into the artistic mind. I say “may” because how the hell am I supposed to know to a certainty, not being an artist myself. Those two novels in question are The Horse's Mouth and The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham. You will forgive me, I am sure, if I do not inc...more
Seemed like serendipity that I randomly chose this book from my shelf at the same time as listening to John Updike's "Seek My Face". Both books deal with art and the relationship between the artist and philosophy. The main character in this book is Gully Jimson, a well educated man who sees himself as an artistic genius but lives on the fringe of society and his real talent appears to be as a con man.
The descriptions of world as he sees it are what makes this book special ....again I got the fee...more
The descriptions of world as he sees it are what makes this book special ....again I got the fee...more
The third part of a trilogy I remain ignorant of. It’s the story of Gulley Jimson, an artist whose first drawings --- of his wife at her bath --- are valuable masterworks, but who now at sixty-seven lives in poverty creating vast, fantastic Biblical visions on walls. He narrates the story, and his prose is steeped in realistically evoked artistic vision as he catches sight of ideas in nature and throws himself almost involuntarily into his work. The conversation is realistic: staccato and slang-...more
Had to read this for a Modern Novel class back in 1969. Of all the books I read for the course, this was the my least favorite. Since it was up against the likes of "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", "Sons and Lovers", "The Magus", "Trout Fishing in America", "A Passage to India", and "The Voyeur", it suffered perhaps unfairly in comparison.
Jan 10, 2012
Mommy
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Those with a sense of irony
Recommended to Mommy by:
Jerry Nusbaum
Shelves:
read-and-re-read
This was a book from years and years ago. My parent's loved it. I loved it and also loved the Alec Guinness film. Coming to it decades later, I think it is bleaker, sadder and also funnier than before. If you are looking for a quick and simple story with an easy through-line, this is definitely not it. Appreciating Cary requires sinking into his language. Plot? An obsessed artist and con man gets out of prison (again), having learned nothing about how not to be a con man. Then (SPOILER ALERT) he...more
Reading this book is part of an occasional project of mine to reread books I loved when I was young. This one, forty-odd years later, still holds up. A humorous portrait of a 67-year-old painter, Gulley Jimson, the book makes fun of the pretensions of "high art" and at the same time shows the real hold that art can have on a person's life. Gulley tries to discourage a young would-be painter who idolizes him because, says Gulley, though he may have "committed arson, adultery, murder, libel, malfe...more
To blatantly namedrop, Tom Robbins suggested I read this as I had mentioned that I was reading ‘An Artists Way’ of which he had not heard. He said the best book he had ever read of the artistic temperament was The Horse’s Mouth, now if Mr Robbins suggests one reads a book.. one does! I ordered it straight away…
It is a great tale of the trials of Gulley Jimson, who discovered, rather late on in life, that his role was to be a painter, he had tried to rebel against this family trait but to no avai...more
It is a great tale of the trials of Gulley Jimson, who discovered, rather late on in life, that his role was to be a painter, he had tried to rebel against this family trait but to no avai...more
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Jul 17, 2008
E.
is currently reading it
This is Tom Robbin's favorite book. Thought it worth reading for that alone. I had to order an old copy from somewhere in the midwest cause I couldn't find it around here. We'll see.
2 likes · like · see review
"Frank was having trouble with his boils. He had a plaster on his neck and was carrying his head all on one side. I like Franklin. He's about nineteen, and is just getting his first real worries. The girls he fancies don't fancy him; the ones he fancied last year and doesn't fancy any more are lying in wait for him with kisses and hatchets. Made a bit in the pools and lost a lot on the dogs. And his best friend did him out of a good job, because he wanted to get married. Three years ago he was a...more
Ok, I admit I am biased. This is one of my favorite books always waiting for a reread. The story line, the writing, the fullness of the characters everything clicked for me. One of the overlooked great books of the last century it is beautifully written and serves as the end piece of Carey's Triptych with Herself Surprised and To Be A Pilgrim all sharing common characters but each with their own version of the story. Gulley Jimson is right up there with The Moon and Sixpences's Charles Stricklan...more
So I didn't finish The Horse's Mouth. I know, I know. It's clever and funny and well-written. But it seems repetitive - Jimson paints. Jimson owes everyone money. Jimson expresses a desire to hit his ex-wife. Jimson actually hits his ex-wife. His ex-wife giggles about being hit. I guess this last point is ultimately the reason why I put it down. I'm okay with some violence towards women in my books if there's a reason for it - for example, I love American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. But the vio...more
...happiness in the face of despairing circumstances...insanity of genius...
The author takes great leaps with figurative language at times, which I liked. examples:
"Constable night. Broken lumps of cloud whirling across a knife-colored sky like wreckage on a Thames flood. Moon running over the house fronts like a spotlight. When it fell on the willows, they trembled like girls caught in dark corners waiting for their young men."
"Hickson got older since I saw him last. Small and dry, black suit hanging off his back like a sack. Looked like a little beetle on its crooked...more
La boca del caballo és l'últim llibre d'una trilogia que explica molt bé el món de l'art i la creació; el primer, a través d'una model i amant del pintor; el segon, la mirada del col.leccionista d'obres d'aquest artista (aquest dos no els he llegit); i el tercer, des del punt de vista del pintor, Gulley Jimson,que nomès fa que posar-se en embolics, tot amb tal de pintar el que vol i com vol. Situacions molt divertides . En el fons, és una història tràgica, però el sentit de l'humor de l'escripto...more
The flow of descriptive language on display here is overwhelming. The main character of the novel is an artist, and as if that weren't bad enough, a modern artist, as he, Gully Jimson, might say. The prose describing the art and more importantly the thought behind the art is staggeringly beautiful. Yes I was mentally staggering around my living room as I read passages like this one on a sunset,
"Under the cloudbank. Sun was in the bank. Streak of salmon below. Salmon trout
above soaking into was...more
"Under the cloudbank. Sun was in the bank. Streak of salmon below. Salmon trout
above soaking into was...more
How thoroughly British this book is! In any case, it's a "slice of life" book of the bohemian in London in the 30's. Funny thing, the main character is something of a scalawag---constantly on the make, in order to do his art. Of all the characters around him, Cokey is the most interesting---a tough woman that's bene put to the edge of society by the end of the book because of an unwanted pregnancy. His wives are also pretty interesting---one you never actually meet (dead long before the book sta...more
I loved this book: it was a window into the mind of a modern artist and (along with The Shock of the New it changed the way I looked at and understood modern art forever.
It's too long since I read it to write a proper review, I should read it again!
It's too long since I read it to write a proper review, I should read it again!
Irish Author, wonderful prose 1st person account of the last years of Gully Jimson. Gully is an underappreciated starving artist who sees all of life in terms of images to be painted. His lady friends are all wrecks. He is in and out of jail for petty crimes he commits in an effort to buy paints and porter. He is a fascinating character.
The picaresque novel has a noble tradition reaching back to Don Quixote. In his novel, The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary created a picaresque hero for the twentieth century. Gully Jimson is the epitome of a life force and his creativity in life as well as art carries him forward and wins the reader's heart. Cary's theme is one of the creative artist pitted against authority of all kinds. The novel opens with opens with Jimson, newly released from prison, reveling in his freedom admiring the clouds i...more
My fault, probably but I never found the voice, established the conversation. It's really quite a hard read - no plot to speak of - more a series of character studies. Reminded me of plays I have walked out of. As to the legendary exploration of the artistic mind, well, it all seemed so dated. If only Van Gogh hadn't cut off his frigging ear. Then perhaps we wouldn't have this mad/driven artist thing. Garlic is to salad what insanity is to art. Discuss.
May 16, 2011
nathan
added it
Gulley Jimson is a flake, a rake, a snake — a lark, and an old fart. And it's great. But more importantly, he is a good picture-maker. Which is a very good thing to be indeed for a first-person narrator.
One of the great novels that explores the inner artist, by Joyce Cary. Gulley Jimson is a selfish, idealistic, opportunistic and above all a driven, very human character. He’s a con artist. He’s a genius. One of my favorite books that was made into a very good film starring Alec Guinness.
I was blessed with a yellowed copy of this book which disintegrated as I read it. It seemed to suit the ephemeral philosophy of the main character, Gulley Jimson, who is vividly realized as are most of the side characters in this absorbing work.
Sep 25, 2009
Freder
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Freder by:
Mrs. Ham
Cary would belong on the list of greats even if his only achievement had been to create Gully Jimson, painter, anarchist and genius, antihero of The Horse’s Mouth. But in novel after novel, Cary wrote from inside his characters, using only subtle technique — never the pyrotechnics of writers like Faulkner and Dos Passos (both of whom are favorites — don’t get me wrong). Artists, politicians, army men, children, wives and lovers all came under his pen with equal conviction, all caught out to one...more
Unreliable narrator at its best. Made me want to write. One of my favorite quotes from the book comes when Jimson comforts the perpetually tortured Cokie: "There, there, things are never so bad they can't get any worse."
I have this cover, that used to express the book for me. I used to thrust this cover at my friends: That is beauty. That is love. Find them inside, too. It's about a down-and-out artist, in his delapidated age. Humane.
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Cary now undertook his great works examining historical and social change in England during his own lifetime. The First Trilogy (1941–44) finally provided Cary with a reasonable income, and The Horse's Mouth (1944) remains his most popular novel. Cary's pamphlet "The Case for African Freedom" (1941), published by Orwell's Searchlight Books series, had attracted some interest, and the film director...more
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“To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius. And easier. Because it's true. It's a new world every heart beat.”
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22 people liked it
“Nothing like poetry when you lie awake at night. It keeps the old brain limber. It washes away the mud and sand that keeps on blocking up the bends.
Like waves to make the pebbles dance on my old floors. And turn them into rubies and jacinths; or at any rate, good imitations.”
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Like waves to make the pebbles dance on my old floors. And turn them into rubies and jacinths; or at any rate, good imitations.”
