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Paul Bryant's Reviews > Ermyntrude and Esmeralda: A Naughty Novella
Ermyntrude and Esmeralda: A Naughty Novella
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This book is at the same time the shortest, silliest and coolest book I own. I just read it yesterday.
Short? - some of my reviews are longer than this book. It says 74 pages but half of them are full page Este cartoons.
Silly? - Here's Lytton Strachey regaling us with a series of letters by two sexually curious 17 year old ladies from la belle epoque who refer to the male and female private parts in such coy terms that I could hear toes curling from a hundred yards away, and the toes were on feet belonging to people who weren't reading this book. It was like nuclear fallout. I have to visit a chiropodist now to get my own toes professionally uncurled.
Cool? - A first edition hardback from 1969 sent by a Goodreads friend from across the Atlantic with a handwritten note in it. I'll say cool!
Short? - some of my reviews are longer than this book. It says 74 pages but half of them are full page Este cartoons.
Silly? - Here's Lytton Strachey regaling us with a series of letters by two sexually curious 17 year old ladies from la belle epoque who refer to the male and female private parts in such coy terms that I could hear toes curling from a hundred yards away, and the toes were on feet belonging to people who weren't reading this book. It was like nuclear fallout. I have to visit a chiropodist now to get my own toes professionally uncurled.
Cool? - A first edition hardback from 1969 sent by a Goodreads friend from across the Atlantic with a handwritten note in it. I'll say cool!
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
July 16, 2012
–
Finished Reading
July 17, 2012
– Shelved
July 17, 2012
– Shelved as:
verysleazyfun
June 2, 2018
– Shelved as:
novels
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Sarah (Presto agitato)
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rated it 3 stars
Jul 17, 2012 03:42PM
This book cracked me up. Such over-the-top ridiculousness, and the illustrations were great. I wish I could have had Lytton Strachey as a pen pal.
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don't we all, Sarah, and as a drinking companion, along with Carrington. He's one of the great personalities of English literature, I think, he comes across as such a warm funny engaging man even though his acquaintances often characterised him as a malevolent spider. I recommend Carrington's diaries - which I must review at some point, but in the mean time here's a few thoughts on herhttp://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Paul wrote: "don't we all, Sarah, and as a drinking companion, along with Carrington. He's one of the great personalities of English literature, I think, he comes across as such a warm funny engaging man even though his acquaintances often characterised him as a malevolent spider. I recommend Carrington's diaries - which I must review at some point, but in the mean time here's a few thoughts on her..."I think he had some spider tendencies, but underneath it all a good heart. His letters are some of my absolute favorites. I love Carrington too, though I think she was hard on some of the men in her life. Thanks for the tip about her diaries.
