Valmouth and Other Novels

by Ronald Firbank

Her ladyship languishes on the jaguar-skin sofa, robed in pyjamas; a negro boy roams the gold city streets, searching for a shabet but dreaming of butterflies; there, encased in a chasuble, his Eminence baptises the Duquesa DunEden. These are scenes from the novels featured in this collection.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, 20th Century, British Literature, Novella, Classics

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1919

About the author

British novelist Ronald Firbank was born in London, the son of society lady Harriet Jane Garrett and MP Sir Thomas Firbank. He went to Uppingham School, and then on to Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He converted to Catholicism in 1907. In 1909 he left Cambridge, without completing a degree.
Living off his inheritance he travelled around Spain, Italy, the Middle East, and North Africa. Ronald Firbank died of lung disease while in Rome.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valmouth is the novel Aubrey Beardsley would have written, if he had written novels. Elegant, absurd, often obscene, Valmouth (1919) is as much a style as a story. And the style is unlike anything the world would see again for some 50 years. A litany of the principal characters may give you a notion of Firbank's approach to literature: the centenarian Eulalia Hurstpierpoint, devoted to faith, flagellation, and spiked garters; Mrs Elizabeth/Lizzie/Betty Thoroughfare, Eulalia's pompous companion; ffines, the butler; Thetis Tooke, a sweet young thing hoping to catch Mrs Thoroughfare's son, Dick; Madam Yajñavalkya, an Indian masseuse, mystic, and confidante; and Lady Parvula de Panzoust, who in spite of her age has kept her lovelight blazing. The novella is abundant, overbrimming with flowers, and characters, and bons mots, and all manner of artistic, religious, and sartorial allusions. What plot there is, is all but obscured by the luxuriant overgrowth of Firbank's bizarre, arabesque prose. And the dialogue ...

Firbank is a writer's writer. He paid for the printing of most of his books, few of which sold. But those who admired him -- the Sitwells, W H Auden, E M Forster, and Evelyn Waugh -- adopted and refined some of his eccentricities and certainly enjoyed his very strange and wholly unique humor. If you enjoy Thomas Pynchon, early Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh's social satires, or the decadent literature of the 1890s, you may find parts of Valmouth to be among the most curious and hilarious pieces of writing you've come across in a long time.

PS: this book gets an extra star for its peculiar and pleasant aftertaste. It's like that bowl of soup you had in the Persian restaurant last night that didn't seem too spectacular when you ate it, but by 1:30 am you discover that the only thing you want in life is another bowl of that stuff. Firbank, too, lingers and mellows with a little time.

[Yuri Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valmouth (1919), Prancing Nigger (1924) and Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli (1926): three novellas of varying quality. If Firbank’s salaciousness was the issue in the 1920s, then today’s problem is the racial stereotypes and expressions. Although we must consider that Firbank was reflecting – let us be generous and say satirising – the attitudes of his times, the constant “black face” vernacular of Prancing Nigger (to a lesser extent Valmouth) is now tedious and offensive. Prancing Nigger is, I think, the weakest work in this volume; but the other two do not lift the book’s average above a three. Cardinal Pirelli, not-so-quietly savaging the Catholic Church, is probably the best. Throughout, however, are the original turns of phrase, the crisp, unexpected images that are the true rewards for reading this writer.

[Leslie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this--I really did. I enjoy off-kilter books that do unexpected things, that are out of sync with current tastes. But I find it hard to imagine anyone willingly reading this for any other than scholarly or historical reasons. Some books are genuinely important but don't survive their times; this is one of those books. And the grotesque presentation of racialized characters is only one of the reasons why. I couldn't get through it, and that's rare for me. I can power through almost anything if I'm determined to finish it. But I couldn't think of a good enough reason to do so this time.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ronald Firbank is introduced as a character in Alan Hollinghurst's The Swimming-Pool Library - his own work reflects some of Hollinghurst's preoccupations (sex, mainly gay; sexual fascination with the dark-skinned "other") largely presented in a manner that is a bit too stereotyped to secure him a spot in the current literary canon. His phonetic rendering of black speech is no cruder than Zora Neale Hurston's and his Caribbean island characters seem at times to have refreshing candor and lack of pretense compared to their colonialist counterparts. His writing is baroque, always choosing the arcane word where any synonym is possible, dense with mythological allusion and his characters converse in a spiteful campy style - although not really a modernist in the Joyce/Pound/Eliot et al mode, his writing is reminiscent of Djuna Barnes at times.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried to read Valmouth having 'discovered' the author in Christopher Fowler's The Book of Forgotten Authors but just could not get on with it at all - the character names were ludicrous and I couldn't connect with them at all and the dialogue was the worst I have ever read, almost nonsensical. I just felt I have more books that I really want to read rather than persevere with something I wasn't enjoying at all. I rarely give up on a book but this wasn't worth the effort for me - unfinished so no rating.

[Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ornate, satirical, campy baroque worlds of Ronald Firbank are depicted in this selection of three of his short novels. To be honest, reading these works much earlier might have made me enjoy them more: as a result, I had this book on my 'to read' shelf for so long, that the sales receipt faded and the Penguin paperback pages browned. Short novels, shorter on plot but loaded with overly piled on descriptions: i had no idea what was going on in Valmouth - however dazzling Firbank's style was. The unfortunately titled Prancing Nigger was a rare bow to plot but the typical pile on of description was slightly daunting. In The Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli (Firbank's last novel), his top heavy over-description becomes alarming and ultimately capsizes a satiric look at Catholicism and its excesses. While I'm critical of Firbank's essential excess, his campy wackiness as a stylist is deliberately over the top, a true English eccentric. Skip this, if a camp sensibility bothers you.

[Salvatore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is nuts, hysterical, occasionally nonsensical, fragmented, ridiculous, fun, awful, stupid, bright, clever. Something original surely. Successful? That's another question. But certainly it's decadent!

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

too decadent for me. there's something really distasteful about camp. I went into this imagining those anti-clerical paintings of jolly cardinals and monks tippling and playing with small animals but the reality is rather grim.

[Franziska Self Fisken · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simply did not enjoy the two I started, so gave up!

[Alleaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Võtsin selle vanni minnes kaasa. Mul on tunne, et olen seda juba varem ka korra teinud. Aga üldse ei mäleta sisu.

Loomingu raamatukogu, 1999/35-36

Igatahes. Väga siivutu. Siivutu on tegelikult vale sõna. Kõik mõtlevad muudkui seksist. Mitte otseselt. Aga vanad tädid noolivad noori poisse ja tüdrukuid. Lesbid on esindatud, geyd vist mitte aga ei saagi ju kui tegelased enamasti vanamutid. Huvitav, eriti oma aja kohta, 20. sajandi esimesed kümned.
Meenutab A-S. See kuidas ta räägib ja kirjutab, mul enamasti puudub taustainfo tema tegelaste kohta. Siin raamatus on samamoodi, nagu kuulakski pealt kellegi vestlust. Nemad on pidevalt üksteisega koos, saavad poolelt sõnalt üksteisest aru, neil polegi vaja midagi oma lausetele, mis minu jaoks tunduvad poolikud, midagi lisada. Päris vestlus.
Seda raamatut ongi ehk hea aeg-ajalt niimoodi ruttu lugeda. Nagu kuulaksid nende vanadaamide vestlust peal seal pimedas inglise häärberis.

[Dave Whitaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ordered this book because I read The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst. In The Folding Star, he references Ronald Firbank quite a bit. I didn't know anything about Firbank, so I ordered the book. Comprised of three novellas, this was a very difficult read. Firbank was an early Modernist, and he employs a compressed writing style. It's difficult at times to understand what was happening and I would have to re-read sections (especially when I got sleepy). Another difficulty is reading these works from a modern perspective, especially "Sorrow in Sunlight" which uses the "N" word quite liberally. I can't say I enjoyed the stories, but it was interesting to read to see how he influenced other writers. Firbank is a central part of The Folding Star, and Hollinghurst even uses some of the vocabulary from Firbank.

[Lucy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review applies to Valmouth only, though since it is reckoned to be his best work then I dread to think what the rest are like. It's a profoundly silly, offensive work by an author who seemed to think he was being daring and innovative by using words wrongly and inventing what are presumably intended as comic names. Don't bother with it.

[Simon]

Couldn't really get into it. Apparently W.H. Auden said he wouldn't want to meet anyone who didn't love Firbank; but what the hell.

[James M · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small seaside spa’s elderly inhabitants cope with the integration of black culture.