Parnassus on Wheels (The Art of the Novella) - Softcover

Morley, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935554115 ISBN 13: 9781935554110

Publisher: Melville House, 2010

Synopsis

I imagined him in his beloved Brooklyn, strolling in Prospect Park and preaching to chance comers about his gospel of good books.

"When you sell a man a book," says Roger Mifflin, the sprite-like book peddler at the center of this classic novella, "you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life." In this beguiling but little-known prequel to Christopher Morley's beloved Haunted Bookshop, the "whole new life" that the traveling bookman delivers to Helen McGill, the narrator of Parnassus on Wheels, provides the romantic comedy that drives this charming love letter to a life in books.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

About this title

From the Publisher

When you sell a man a book, says Roger Mifflin, protagonist of these classic bookselling novels, you don t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue you sell him a whole new life. The new life the itinerant bookman delivers to Helen McGill, the narrator of Parnassus on Wheels, provides the romantic comedy that drives the novel. Published in 1917, Morley s Þrst love letter to the trafÞc in books remains a transporting entertainment. Its sequel, The Haunted Bookshop, Þnds Mifflin and McGill, now married, ensconced in Brooklyn. The novel s rollicking plot provides ample doses of diversion, while allowing more room for Mifflin (and Morley) to expound on the intricacy of the bookseller s art. Introductions by James Mustich, Jr.

About the Author

Christopher Morley (1890-1957) was a New York newspaper columnist who wrote over one hundred books, including the bestselling novels The Haunted Bookshop and Kitty Foyle, which sold over a million copies and was made into a hit Hollywood movie.

Edition details

• Publisher: Melville House
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1935554115
• ISBN 13: 9781935554110
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 144