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Night Life of the Gods
by
Thorne Smith
Hunter Hawk has a knack for annoying his ultra-respectable relatives. He likes to experiment and, best of all, he likes to experiment with explosives. His garage-cum-laboratory is a veritable mine field replete with noxious fumes. But with the help of Megaera, a fetching 900-year-old lady leprechaun he meets one night in the woods, he masters the art (if not the timing) of...more
Mass Market Paperback, 256 pages
Published
June 12th 1980
by Del Rey
(first published 1931)
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One of Thorne Smith's better outings. When a scientist pairs up with a witch with the ability to bring statues to life, chaos ensues. The two decide it would be a good idea to bring the statues of the gods at the Metropolitan Museum to life. But the gods, it turns out, are too human by half -- they immediately start to cavort, bicker, drink, and carry on in a spree of epic proportions. The word "romp" could easily have been invented just to describe this sort of book.
I wonder whether the fairly...more
I wonder whether the fairly...more
The word "Madcap" was invented for books like "The Night of the Gods." The title sounds kind of serious - but it's about a doctor who invented a ray that can turn people into statues - which he gladly tested on his family. Somewhere down the line he meets a super cute nude (if memory serves me correctly) fairy - who then both went to a big museum in NYC to zap the God Statues with his ray - which made them come to life.
So with the Nude cute fairy on hand, the mad scientist, with Zeus, Mercury a...more
So with the Nude cute fairy on hand, the mad scientist, with Zeus, Mercury a...more
Apr 18, 2012
Cheryl
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
goodreads-challenge-2012
Reasons for picking it up: Saw it on a random favorites list on GoodReads, thought it would be fun to read.
Where did I get it from: Purchased it on Amazon for the Kindle.(If you choose to read the book you can read it directly from the GoodReads website for free.)
What this book is about:
What happens when a scientist discovers how to turn living material into stone and back again at will and decides to bring the Greek Gods to life.
My opinion:
Originally written in the 1930s (published in '31)by Th...more
Where did I get it from: Purchased it on Amazon for the Kindle.(If you choose to read the book you can read it directly from the GoodReads website for free.)
What this book is about:
What happens when a scientist discovers how to turn living material into stone and back again at will and decides to bring the Greek Gods to life.
My opinion:
Originally written in the 1930s (published in '31)by Th...more
May 29, 2012
lowercase
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-i-love,
absolutely-my-favorite-books
i don't recall, now, how i ever came across his work. j. thorne smith was a contemporary of scott fitzgerald and ernest hemingway, although he didn't keep company with either, to my knowledge. he died in 1934.
my absolute favorite thorne smith (since when did we drop the initial j. at the beginning of his name?) novel. as much as i loved "rain in the doorway" and "topper," "the night life of the gods" is his bawdiest, most inventive, laugh-out-loud funniest, and tenderly, wistfully heartbreaking...more
my absolute favorite thorne smith (since when did we drop the initial j. at the beginning of his name?) novel. as much as i loved "rain in the doorway" and "topper," "the night life of the gods" is his bawdiest, most inventive, laugh-out-loud funniest, and tenderly, wistfully heartbreaking...more
What a fun little book. I think our culture has moved beyond the point where anything can be ribald any more. Things are either explicit or they aren't. And that's a bit of a shame, because there's some fun to be had with subtlety. You feel like you're getting away with something. At any rate, The Night Life Of The Gods was written in 1931, and it is ribald as all hell. It centers around a guy who can turn people to stone and stone statues to people. From this rather ridiculous premise comes a p...more
This book suffers from a bad case of being nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is. The story is okay, but most of the characters are not terribly likable (and many can barely can be told apart) and the wit falls flat because it's fairly juvenille and sort of elitist at the same time (you definitely get the impression that no one is cool enough to hang out with these people- cool being defined as heavy drinking and irresponsible, naturally). Additionally, despite little moments and gems of wisd...more
The 1931 novel The Night Life of the Gods, by Thorne Smith, opens with a bang—literally. Once again, Hunter Hawk, a brilliant and madcap scientist, creates an explosion in his laboratory—continuing his predilection to rattle and annoy his family. Only his niece, Daffy, who loves and admires her uncle, takes an interest in his mysterious experiments, the latest of which permits him to turn flesh into stone. Various high jinx ensure as Hawk indulges his desire to annoy his family and acquaintances...more
Thorne Smith's The Nightlife of the Gods is the literary equivalence of a Frank Capra's screw-ball comedy film. Smith loved his drunken debaucheries, his mean-spirited pranksters, his heathenistic mythological creatures and of course all that drinking and sex. Classy double-entendre styled sex of course. This was the early 20th century. Yet he was also making lots of social commentary, much of it skewering the American upper-class and their often hypocritical morals. Thorne Smith certainly knew...more
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Perhaps the shine really comes from the feelings I had when I read it as a young teenager. I saw the freedom and the irreverence of the book as something I enjoyed and aspired to in my own life. These kinds of books (Gods Behaving Badly is a similar type of book) seem to engage me in ways that make me happy. Are there more like this?
This book had several highs and lows. The lows were somewhat boring and a trifle long winded but the highs were great and hilarious in greater quantities. I was shocked at how frank the book was regarding mores and sex especially being written in 1931. Perhaps, the Hayes code affected novels also? A nice read and definitely worth the effort to track down a print copy.
Dated (to Prohibition), rather focussed (on drinking, crime, and sex, in about that order). Rather blasphemous, especially to poor Diana (who is not a virgin in this story). Not very explicit, considering that many characters are constantly fornicating. Romantic and quasi-serious and a bit sad, right at the end.
omg, how could I forget this gem? Read it in 7th grade (such a racy cover--dismayed my English teacher, parents--impressed my friends), and went on to read Topper, The Bishop's Jaegers, The Passionate Witch, Did She Fall, etc. Something about his tongue-in-cheek, snarky wit resonates with me, even now.
Jan 31, 2012
Mike
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction-fantasy
Throne Smith wrote Topper and several other very funny and cheerful books in the 1930s. He was only 42 when he died. The Night Life of the Gods is a love story about a scientist and what happens when the statues of Greek Gods come aflive in modern day New York. It is a rolicking good read.
Read this many years ago. To this day it remains one of my favorite book. Kept me laughing. Still makes me laugh. Have recommended to many friends over the years. Keep looking for a copy to re-read.
Fantastic, it provides chuckles, giggles and out in the open laughter. Well written, witty without being either too dry or too earthy. Intelligent without being snobbish. Smith is the American answer to Oscar Wilde.
Meh. It had a good premise, but no plot. Just kinda meandered for most of the book. Was still interesting and amusing enough to keep my attention, though.
Smith's unique combination of fantasy and (for the time) risqué social comedy may seem a bit quaint to the modern reader, but holds up remarkably well.
One of the funniest and raciest books I have ever read, yet not a single word of pornography in it.
Sharp, biting and witty. Satirical 1930's dialogue with rapid banter. And lots of alcohol.
I read it 4 times and it didnt lose the humor.
Corny, but a classic.
Criticizing an Explosion, Blotto's Tail Astounds, Reluctant Statues, The Little Man and the Scarecrow, A Furious Reception, The Invasion of Hawk's Bed, Playful Petrification, Meg Removes her Pulloffs, A Nude Descends the Stairs, An Epidemic of Escapes, The Pursuing Beard, Looking the Gods Over, The Gods Step Down, The Gods Get Dressed, The Gods Get Housed, Neptune Gets His Fish, Meg, Mercury, & Betts, Inc., A Demoralizing Tank Party, The Gods Leave Town, Battle and Flight, The Gods on Trial,...more
Simply Brilliant
May 19, 2011
Catherine Cavendish
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
thorne-smith
My favourite!
This book shoots high and falls short. It's supposed to be humorous. I can't believe I stuck with it until the end. I kept hoping this very confident author with an impressive vocabulary would have a point to make. But it's just a sad little fantasy about a bunch of drunks.
It's possible you just need to be at the right point in your life for this book, and I'm too far past that.
It was zany and madcap, but for a book that was intended to be humorous, it got perhaps two chuckles from me, and that's about it. I found the characters largely mean-spirited and not the kind of people I'd want anything to do with, so their frathouse shenanigans really weren't all that entertaining.
It was zany and madcap, but for a book that was intended to be humorous, it got perhaps two chuckles from me, and that's about it. I found the characters largely mean-spirited and not the kind of people I'd want anything to do with, so their frathouse shenanigans really weren't all that entertaining.
Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind, but it didn't feel nearly as clever as it wanted to be. English class humour along the lines of Wodehouse, but naughtier.
Lost interest about halfway through it - the main character hadn't even gotten around to animating the gods - the focus of the back cover blurb. Meh.
Lost interest about halfway through it - the main character hadn't even gotten around to animating the gods - the focus of the back cover blurb. Meh.
Comical and absurd yet exceedingly entertaining.
How is it possible this book was written in the 30's?? So incredibly witty and funny and, for lack of a better term, bawdy! I love the idea of the gods taking over New York, just hilarious! Thorne Smith was a brilliant, wild man, I kind of wish I could have met him : )
This book took me forever to get through, but I think that's more my fault that its. It was pretty funny (in the Wodehouse vein, but slightly less wit and quite a bit more...deviancy?) with some LOL moments, which I always appreciate.
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| What's The Name o...: Fantasy (probably eBook) [s] | 2 | 76 | Jun 16, 2012 07:46am |
James Thorne Smith, Jr. was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, much drinking and supernatural transformations. With racy illustrations, these sold millions of copies in the 1930s and were equally popular in paperbacks of the 1950s.
Smith was born in Annapoli...more
More about Thorne Smith...
Smith was born in Annapoli...more
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Oct 20, 2007 07:37pm