Synopses & Reviews
By one of the most important voices in contemporary world literature, a darkly comic novel about that most British of institutions, Oxford University.
In All Souls, a visiting Spanish lecturer, viewing Oxford through a prismatic detachment, is alternately amused, puzzled, delighted, and disgusted by its vagaries of human vanity. A bit lonely, not always able to see his charming but very married mistress, he casts about for activity; he barely has to teach. Yet so much goes into simply "being" at Oxford: friendship, opinion-mongering, one-upmanship, finicky exchanges of favors, gossip, adultery, book-collecting, back-patting, backstabbing. Marías demonstrates a sweet tooth for eccentricity in this sly campus novel and love story.
Synopsis
From one of the most important voices in world literature, a darkly comic campus novel and love story about that most British of institutions, Oxford University. - With an Introduction by John Banville.
In All Souls, a visiting Spanish lecturer, viewing Oxford through a prismatic detachment, is alternately amused, puzzled, delighted, and disgusted by its vagaries of human vanity. A bit lonely, not always able to see his charming but very married mistress, he casts about for activity; he barely has to teach. Yet so much goes into simply being at Oxford: friendship, opinion-mongering, one-upmanship, finicky exchanges of favors, gossip, adultery, book-collecting, back-patting, backstabbing. Mar as demonstrates a sweet tooth for eccentricity in this novel from "one of the best contemporary writers" (J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature).
Synopsis
From one of the most important voices in world literature, a darkly comic campus novel and love story about that most British of institutions, Oxford University. - "Javier Mar as is in my opinion one of the best contemporary writers." --J.M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace
In All Souls, a visiting Spanish lecturer, viewing Oxford through a prismatic detachment, is alternately amused, puzzled, delighted, and disgusted by its vagaries of human vanity. A bit lonely, not always able to see his charming but very married mistress, he casts about for activity; he barely has to teach. Yet so much goes into simply "being" at Oxford: friendship, opinion-mongering, one-upmanship, finicky exchanges of favors, gossip, adultery, book-collecting, back-patting, backstabbing. Mar as demonstrates a sweet tooth for eccentricity in this novel from "one of the best contemporary writers" (J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature).
Synopsis
From one of the most important voices in world literature--and the award-winning author of The Infatuations--a darkly comic campus novel and love story about that most British of institutions, Oxford University. - "Javier Mar as is in my opinion one of the best contemporary writers." --J.M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace
In All Souls, a visiting Spanish lecturer, viewing Oxford through a prismatic detachment, is alternately amused, puzzled, delighted, and disgusted by its vagaries of human vanity. A bit lonely, not always able to see his charming but very married mistress, he casts about for activity; he barely has to teach. Yet so much goes into simply "being" at Oxford: friendship, opinion-mongering, one-upmanship, finicky exchanges of favors, gossip, adultery, book-collecting, back-patting, backstabbing. Mar as demonstrates a sweet tooth for eccentricity in this novel from "one of the best contemporary writers" (J.M. Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature).
About the Author
Javier Marías was born in Madrid in 1951. He has published ten novels, two collections of short stories and several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into thirty-two languages and won a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the prestigious Dublin IMPAC award for A Heart So White. He is also a highly practiced translator into Spanish of English authors, including Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Thomas Browne and Laurence Sterne. He has held academic posts in Spain, the United States and in Britain, as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.