A01=Stefan Themerson
Author_Stefan Themerson
Category=FBA
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Product details
- ISBN 9781564784179
- Weight: 276g
- Dimensions: 135 x 209mm
- Publication Date: 13 Oct 2005
- Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Hobson's Island (so called because Mr. Hobson bought it, or did Mr. Hobson buy it because it was so called?) enjoyed decades of isolation in the Atlantic Ocean. For years, the caretakers lived there peacefully, with only a cow for company and an empty house to care for. But all is suddenly disrupted when a wave of unusual visitors arrive: a deposed African king fleeing a revolution, a Hobson descendant claiming ownership, government agents eyeing the nation-less real estate, and scientists looking to test a dangerous new invention. In typical Themerson fashion, the comic is wound up with the serious and let go to devastating effect. A clever and apt parodying of Cold War power plays and twisted science, Hobson's Island is a strangely touching, sympathetic, and emotional account of the families and individuals brought together and broken up by Hobson's Island.
Stefan Themerson (1910-1988) was born in Poland, moved to Russia during the Revolution, studied physics and architecture in Warsaw, and lived in Paris before settling in London. Aside from his writings--which include novels such as Tom Harris, The Mystery of the Sardine, and Professor Mmaa's Lecture, children's stories, philosophical essays, and poems--Themerson also composed music and made a number of films with his wife Franciszka. Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) is acknowledged as one of the most influential of modern French writers, having helped determine the shape of twentieth-century French literature, especially in his role with the Oulipo, a group of authors that includes Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, and Harry Mathews, among others.
