Wilt

by Tom Sharpe

Hardcover, 1976

DDC/MDS

823/.9/14

823/.9/14

Publication

London : Secker & Warburg, 1976.

Original publication date

1976

Description

Im März 1978 ging Douglas Adams' klassischer interstellarer Anhalter-Reiseführer bei der BBC zum ersten Mal auf Sendung. Nun erscheint pünktlich zur 25-Jahr-Feier "Keine Panik!", die vergnüglich-chaotische Lebensgeschichte des Kult-Autors von Knüllern wie "Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis" und "Dirk Gentlys Holistische Detektei". Der Biograph Neil Gaiman, selbst bekannter Schriftsteller, schreibt mit Liebe zum skurrilen Detail und einem trockenen Humor, der sich vor Adams verneigt. Kleines Beispiel: "Was Douglas Adams in den Jahren zwischen Mitte 1977 und 1980 eigentlich machte, ist im nachhinein nicht mehr so leicht zu entwirren. Umso mehr ist hier über Adams' erste Texte und literarische Vorbilder zu erfahren (Kafka? Orwell? Nein: Adams beruft sich auf Captain W. E. John und noch einen anderen Autor, "den anscheinend niemand außer mir kennt".), über seine Berufserfahrungen als Hühnerstall-Ausmister und als Leibwächter einer arabischen Ölfamilie. Über die liebe Mühe mit dem Schreiben und über kläglich gescheiterte Projekte, wie z.B. die Ringo-Starr-Show, in der Ringo einen Chauffeur spielen sollte, der seinen Boss auf dem Rücken trägt. "Keine Panik!" ist natürlich auch die Erfolgsgeschichte von "Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis". Zuerst war da nur die besoffene Idee. Dann die BBC-Radioserie, die Romane, die Fernsehsendung und das Computerspiel. "Per Anhalter" ist sogar als Handtuch erschienen, aber immer noch nicht in den Kinos. Adams verkaufte die Filmrechte zwar schon 1982, schlug sich aber dann jahrelang und bis zuletzt mit verschiedenen Hollywood-Mogulen herum. Er starb im Mai 2001 mit 49 Jahren an einem Herzinfarkt. Nicht nur für Stephen Fry hat Adams "die Party viel zu früh verlassen".… (more)

Status

Available

Call number

823/.9/14

Series

Wilt (1)

Collection

Letters

User reviews

LibraryThing member datrappert

Perhaps it is the rave reviews this paperback comes equipped with that create a sense of resistance in me, but I didn’t find Wilt to be laugh-out-loud funny as some people seem to. The first two-thirds of the book are reasonably entertaining as a professor at a second- (or third-rate) British

University finds himself accused of murder after a debauched party at the house of a visiting American professor. I’m not sure if author Sharpe intends for the American professor and his wife to be representative of Americans in general or just American academics, but they don’t have enough depth to them to rise above caricatures, and while their sniping at each other can be entertaining, it never rises to “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” levels. On the other hand, as the novel winds its way to its close, the character development of Wilt and his wife, Eva, is quite fascinating. Wilt’s unperturbed response to marathon questioning by the police reveals his character to be a lot tougher than we originally imagined, and his wife, despite Wilt’s opinion of her, shows a few strengths of her own.
All along, we have a subplot of inter-faculty squabbles about a new joint studies program, while the police are digging for the body in the background, as viewed by a lot of convenient windows. All in all, this seems rather a 1970s period piece with its talk of women's liberation and various sexual peccadilloes, but it has its rewards.

Show Less

6 more

LibraryThing member smichaelwilson

Wilt was my first introduction to the written work of Tom Sharpe, or so I thought until a quarter of the way through, when I realized I had actually watched the film adaptation starring Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones I couple of decades previous. Wilt drips with dry British humor that satirizes the

cultural formalities and class division while somehow defending it at the same time. Wilt inadvertently frames himself for the murder of his wife - who isn't even dead, mind you - and through his constant attempts to clear his name provokes the reactionary disapproval of the local constabulary, his academic peers, and practically everybody else that gets drawn into the growing avalanche of complications. Things spin even further out of control when Wilt finds himself enjoying it. Yes, there is a blow-up sex doll involved, but the humor revolving dear Judy has less to do with its existence than the reaction to it. Wilt excels as a hilarious work also because the novel's hero Henry Wilt - beleaguered literature professor and married man - is just as off-kilter (if not more so) than the rest of characters galivanting through this comedy of errors. Fans of British humor will really get a kick out of Wilt.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Tonestaple

A brilliant takedown of bureaucracy.

LibraryThing member Bridgey

Wilt - Tom Sharpe ***

I remember years ago my parents both reading Wilt and enjoying it, and then there came the film with Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones which I can vaguely remember watching (even though I probably shouldn’t have). I had heard of Tom Sharpe but never picked any of his books up. I

was aware that Wilt was part of a series so thought I would start at the beginning...

Henry Wilt is a polytechnic tutor who has been stuck in the same job and at the same level for a number of years. At home he has domineering wife, Eva, who befriends an American couple and becomes drawn into their hippyish way of life. After an incident involving a blow-up doll at a party, Eva goes off on a boat trip with her new friends, leaving Wilt at home with only the doll for company. Normally a quiet sort of chap he now begins to imagine how his life would be without her, and using the doll as a makeshift Eva on which to practice his plans, one night he disposes of the sex toy in a sort of trial run. Unfortunately for him things don’t go as smoothly as he would have liked, and soon he attracts the attention of the local constabulary.

This has to be one of those books where I need to hold my hands up in the air and say the reason I didn’t like it that much was probably me. I have heard and read so many positive things about Wilt that there can’t really be any other explanation. I just didn’t find it all that funny. Yes, it was well written and yes, it had an inventive and original plot, but did it do the job I bought it for and make me laugh? Nope. Not even a stifled giggle. Ah well, better luck next time.

Show Less

LibraryThing member breic

It starts off a bit weak, with an implausible and off-puttingly odd plot. But soon it becomes quite funny, and a real page-turner.

LibraryThing member NickDuberley

One of the funniest books written in English.

As there are very few laugh-out-loud books, I've decided to add a small shelf here to put the ones I've read on. :-)
BTW being humorous is not the opposite of being serious - if anything it is the opposite of being boring.

LibraryThing member burritapal

This is frickin hilarious. This chap named Henry Wilt is an instructor in a Technical College, in the Liberal Studies program, in Ipwell, and he teaches classes of Butcher Apprentices, Pipelayer Apprentices, Gaspipelayer Apprentices...well, you get the idea. He hands them out books like"Lord of the

Flies," and he really hates his job. He hates his wife, he hates his life. Walking the dog while his wife does yoga at home, he fantasizes about murdering her. Henry Wilt will tell you"Be careful what you wish for." I will be reading Wilt No. 2.

Show Less

Fewer