Discount Price: $89.95
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780754005674
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN number: 0754005674
Label: Chivers Audio Books
Manufacturer: Chivers Audio Books
Quantity: 10
Printing Date: 2001-01
Publishing house: Chivers Audio Books
Sale Popularity Level: 7007378
Studio: Chivers Audio Books
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
An unlikely con man wagers wife, wealth, and sanity in pursuit of an elusive Old Master.
Invited to dinner by the boorish local landowner, Martin Clay, an easily distracted philosopher, and his art-historian wife are asked to assess three dusty paintings blocking the draught from the chimney. But hiding beneath the soot is nothing less-Martin believes-than a lost work by Bruegel. So begins a hilarious trail of lies and concealments, desperate schemes and soaring hopes as Martin, betting all that he owns and much that he doesn't, embarks on a quest to prove his hunch, win his wife over, and separate the painting from its owner.
In Headlong, Michael Frayn, 'the master of what is seriously funny' (Anthony Burgess), offers a procession of superbly realized characters, from the country squire gone to seed to his giddy, oversexed young wife. All are burdened by human muddle and human cravings; all are searching for a moral compass as they grapple with greed, folly, and desire. And at the heart of the clamour is Breugel's vision, its dark tones warning of the real risks of temptation and obsession.
With this new novel, Michael Frayn has given us entertainment of the highest order. Supremely wise and wickedly funny, Headlong elevates Frayn into the front rank of contemporary novelists.
Amazon.com Review:
With its sumptuous surfaces and alluring sense of gravitas, classic Dutch painting has fascinated writers for centuries. It's easy to see why. Giant religious representations and gaudy classical scenes already have the weight of literature behind them. But an enigmatic portrait or dimly lit interior seems like a virtual incubator for narrative, and now Michael Frayn joins the Netherlandish fray in Headlong, which features a Bruegel canvas in the starring role.
The other star of the novel is youngish art historian Martin Clay (a Hugh Grant character gone to fat), who identifies the lost Bruegel in a tumbledown country home. The picture elicits an immediate shock of recognition: Already, somewhere in those very first few instants, something has begun to stir inside me. In my head, in the pit of my stomach. It's as if the sun's emerging from the clouds, and the world's changing in front of my eyes, from grey to golden. I can feel the warmth of the sunlight spreading under my skin, passing like a wave of beneficence through my entire body.
The sight of this masterwork glimmering through the 'grimy pane of time' fires up Martin's customarily dilettantish intellect, and he decides to secure it for the nation--and make himself a fortune--without revealing its true value to the owner. Much double-dealing, bamboozling, and suppressed hysteria ensue as he and the owner try to outfox each other. Yet the heart of the novel is Martin's search for the meaning of the painting that has become his 'triumph and torment and downfall.' Bouncing from gallery to museum to library, he delivers an extended (and entertaining) lesson on iconography and landscape.
As Martin's obsession takes hold, the pace of the novel also accelerates into a breathless rush of action, comic anguish, and scholarly speculation. Not surprisingly, some of Martin's machinations go haywire, which leads to a certain amount of irritating slapstick--shady deals in underground parking lots, art treasures being tipped into the back of a filthy Land Rover, and so forth. But even if he makes his plot work overtime, Frayn is superb in the quest for the meaning of art, not to mention the lure of money and intellectual reputation. And for that alone, Headlong deserves to be called picture perfect. --Eithne Farry
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
A well-written book, but not for those with little prior knowledge of Dutch history and art!
Rated by buyers 
-
I think the negative reviews may have been given by those who were looking for a book to read on the beach. To enjoy the book, you have to remember (at least to some extent) the sketches of art history, the Spanish attempts to suppress the beginning of the Dutch rebellion against themselves and the Catholic church, the college-professor narrator's get-rich-quick scheme, etc.
I was willing to put in the effort, and felt richly rewarded for it. Within the author's intent, my only criticism would be that the narrator is generally portrayed as intelligent, but his actions sometimes seem imbecile, which stretched my credulity. Perhaps it should not have - I have known some fairly impractical college professors.
Rated by buyers 
-
A fantastic book. Extremely funny and witty. I was not going to write a review until I read all of the unwarranted negative reviews. I would guess the criticism of this book stems from the increasingly short attention span of the average person. If you like to bury yourself in an interesting and funny story, this is the book.
Rated by buyers 
-
This had all the earmarks of something I'd love. I was an art-history major in college, am still a major museum-rat, and I especially love Dutch art. But the novel was sooooo boring that I gave up after about a hundred pages. The early dinner-party scene at the Churts' house was hilarious, but then the endless, dry art-historical and philosophical ruminations just put me to sleep. As other reviewers have said, it would have helped immensely if there had been illustrations of the works in question. But reading interminable descriptions of what various paintings look like, and how many different ways you can spell "Brueghel".... please.
Rated by buyers 
-
I was looking forward to reading this book, yet turned out to be pretty dissapointed. He gets 2 stars for being a good writer, sadly this book just wasnt interesting. The story grew stagnant very quickly, and seemed like a bunch of filler that I wasnt interested in. The main character started getting to the point where it seemed like verything he though about was a repeat of something he had previously said. I think the story had potential, but just wasnt executed well.
Find other books like this one:
