The Schinocephalic Waif

by Alexander Theroux, Stan Washburn (Illustrator)

Quirky little book, only 8.25 x 5.5". Cloth bound hard cover with dust jacket (I have supplied images of book with and without the dust jacket). Some shelf wear to dust jacket, otherwise book is like new.

Genres: Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Alexander Theroux is a novelist, poet, and essayist. The most apt description of the novels of Theroux was given by Anthony Burgess in praise of Theroux's Darconville's Cat: Theroux is 'word drunk', filling his novels with a torrent of words archaic and neologic, always striving for originality, while drawing from the traditions of Rolfe, Rabelais, Sterne, and Nabokov.

Reviews

[Chris Via]

A charming oblong octavo book bound in cloth boards, published by David R. Godine in 1975. Same year and same publisher as Theroux’s magisterial essay on literature, “Theroux Metaphrastes,” which I’m thrilled to own in an original copy (it has since been included in some editions of Three Wogs). Following on the heels of those two aforementioned delights, this little “children’s tale” tells of a young girl with an embarrassing physiological misfortune (she is the waif, of course; “cephalic” means “of the head”; and “schino” you’ll understand from context). It is 1554 in Russia and despite a bleak life, young Gremlina’s destiny becomes the etiology of some of Russia’s architecture. If Theroux’s story—really, his words—doesn't win you over, Stan Washburn’s eerie, grotesque illustrations will. There are two other published Theroux “children’s” books: Master Snickup’s Cloak, which is included in Darconville’s Cat, and The Great Wheadle Tragedy.

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

“Mr Theroux, will I have to use a dictionary to read your book?" asked Mrs. Dodypol.
"It depends," says I, "how much you used the dictionary before you read it.”


These are the words about which you'll want to consult your dictionary:

schinocephalic
waif
anomalous
potter's field
Xitler
Eupraxía
injudiciously
phosphorus
sore
"'What is to be done?' screeched the czar. It was the age-old Russian question."
swinet
fulsome
bellshakes
whipt tops
dryasdust
asiatic
oarage
umbles
lollies
suckets
innumerable
nixies
monopods
wishniks
yelpies
archdruids
onocentaurs
kraxen
thwitchets
snools
pea-and-thimble men
be-fanged
Nymphadora
coursers
emplumed
agoggle
knurled
mustachioed
shakos
littera
occidit
spiritus
vivificat
rockbuns
buttongarden
duchess
bequest

With those words and their definite definitions secured you will be well prepared to read this 663-word children's book, text by A. Theroux, illustations by S. Washburn.

[DoctorM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's what you're going to do. First--- shut up. Then--- find a copy of this book. Read it. Do not argue. Just do it. No questions. This book is, well...hilarious, brilliant, and wonderful. Let's say that it's the tale of a little girl in 16th-c. Muscovy whose head is shaped just exactly like an onion...and how she and the tsar, the dread Ivan IV, shape Russian architecture forever and ever. St. Basil's...yes. Yes.

There's one panel where Theroux has sketched out Ivan thundering at his courtiers, the leash chains of a pack of slavering wolfhounds in his fist. There is no good architecture in the Kremlin, and Ivan the Dread is in a rage. The caption? Let's see--- "What is to be done?" cried the tsar. (It was the age-old Russian question) I've been laughing at that for...thirty years.

[Kerin Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

gremlina 😍