β Scribed by Maurice Richardson
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The first novel by this English journalist and short-story writer, a rather self-consciously "madcap" satire: the jacket blurb promises "amazing swoops of cuckoo fun and general insanities, and at the same time grand satire and a healthy if absurd romance." The wackiness centers around the Cadwallows, who in addition to being "one of the noblest and nuttiest families in England" also happen to be teetering on the brink of impoverishment. Potential salvation from their financial plight arrives in the person of Miss Wilhelmina Harkaway, known as "Bill," a nine-foot-tall giantess who has been brought from Australia by the family's youngest son. She is readily adopted by the Cadwallow clan, and with the patronage of a wealthy friend, a scheme is hatched to launch her on a prizefighting career, and thereby reap a fortune. Not surprisingly, her enormous size and commensurate strength permits her to defeat all challengers, and in no time at all she becomes a somewhat freakish celebrity, even at one point going on an American tour. The human-freak-boxing angle is of interest, as the author did a little amateur boxing himself as a young man and later garnered praise for a series of short fantasy stories about a "dwarf surrealist boxer" named Engelbrecht.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
The first novel by this English journalist and short-story writer, a rather self-consciously "madcap" satire: the jacket blurb promises "amazing swoops of cuckoo fun and general insanities, and at the same time grand satire and a healthy if absurd romance." The wackiness centers around the Cadwallow
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