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Knopf
October 2010
On Sale: October 12, 2010
Featuring: Noel Coward
624 pages ISBN: 0307273377 EAN: 9780307273376 Hardcover
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Humor | Non-Fiction
Noël Coward said, “The only thing that really saddens me
over my demise is that I shall not be here to read the
nonsense that will be written about me and my works and my
motives . . . There will be lists of apocryphal jokes I
never made and gleeful misquotations of words I never said.
What a pity I shan’t be here to enjoy
them!” Here is a book that Noël Coward did write;
jokes he did make . . . No gleeful misquotations here . . .
only the best of Coward’s best. Barry Day, editor of
the acclaimed Letters of Noël Coward, who knows more
about Coward and his writing than almost anyone, has brought
together in one volume a Coward reader any Coward reader—or
Coward appreciator—will delight in. It’s hard to
believe that, to date, there has never been a Noël Coward
reader; this volume marks the very first. Here are
scenes from Coward’s plays, The Vortex, Blithe
Spirit, Private Lives, and Design for Living
. . . from his film screenplays, Brief
Encounter and the previously unpublished script for
In Which We Serve . . . from his only published
novel, Pomp and Circumstance, as well as four of his
best short stories. Included, as well, is his verse,
in which Coward reveals the “secret heart” behind the
surface wit of his more formal work . . . And here,
too, are the lyrics of his sublimely Coward songs: “Mad Dogs
and Englishmen” . . . “The Stately Homes of England” . . .
“I’ll See You Again” . . . “Someday I’ll Find You” . . .
“Mad About the Boy” . . . “Sail Away” . . . “Mrs.
Worthington” . . . and much more that embodies what Coward
hoped would be his epitaph: “He was much loved, because he
made people laugh and cry.” Eddie Cantor said Noël
Coward was “the British George M. Cohan . . . The most
brilliant contribution England ever made to American show
business.” The Noël Coward Reader is a
must-have book for those who luxuriated in the collection of
his letters; for those who adore his work and those who are
just discovering the delights of his writing. Kenneth
Tynan said of Coward, “Theatrically speaking, it was Coward
who took sophistication out of the refrigerator and put it
on the hob . . . Even the youngest of us will know, in fifty
years’ time, precisely what is meant by ‘a very Noël Coward
sort of person.’ ” Those who read The Noël Coward
Reader will agree: this is a very Noël Coward sort of book.
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