Very Good condition. Very Good dust jacket. From the collection of American book critic Michael Dirda. Dirda worked as a columnist for The Washington Post from 1978 to 2026 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for his criticism. He has authored two collections of literary criticism and several works on books and reading.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath
Publisher: Harriman House
Publication Date: 2000
Language: English
ISBN 10: 1897597045
ISBN 13: 9781897597040
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

H. Rochester Sneath no longer exists. And if you wished to put your son's name on the waiting list for Selhurst School, near Petworth, Sussex, you might have a little difficulty. It doesn't exist either. But, as this collection of Sneath's letters, and the replies, proves, you can fool most of the people most of the time. Particularly, it seems, if the people happen to be the head masters of thos emost English private institutions - public schools.In early 1948 Sneath began his brief and glorious career. Letters, like canes, mortarboards and jaundiced rugger balls, began to appear in headmasters' offices, whose occupants, with two notable exceptions, appeared to find nothing strange in Sneath's requests or his exhortations. Pompous, indignant, eccentric, pushing, toadying, or just plain dotty, the letters were answered with a seriousness which is barely credible. For he wrote of:- infestations of rats- the possibility of 'engineering' Royal visits- how to hire a private detective- junior masters with club feet and warty noses- ghosts, cricket, statues, new buildings, 'monster' reunionsGeorge Bernard Shaw was puzzled, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was booked up, as was Sir Adrian Boult. Sir William Reid Dick was eager. After four or five letters the Master of Marlborough becaqme exasperated, while the head master of St Benedict's was livid. A certain master displayed a cupidity not normally associated with men of the cloth; the new Master of Rugby was grateful for some wise advice; the head master of Stowe could not have been more helpful about sex. There was talk of Sneath succeeding the hea dmaster of Eton. One head master was so drawn to Sneath that he recommended Selhurst to a prospective parent, who promptly applied for a place on behalf of her son. His name was placed on 'the waiting list for the Waiting List'.Sneath's letters comprise a gentle and unmalicious, but devastatingly accurate parody of the public school system - a collection so intelligently absurd that it defies adequate description.

Review

'The funniest book I have read for ages' The Daily Telegraph 'I just laughed and laughed' The Times 'A delight.' The Times Educational Supplement 'I laughed out loud on every page.' The Scotsman 'One of the funniest books since The Diary of a Nobody, or, if you prefer, Decline and Fall.' Richard Crossman

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With 3 stores less than 1 hour outside the DC/Metropolitan area (1 in Gaithersburg, 1 in Frederick and 1 in Hagerstown, MD), we have the largest selection of books in the tri-state area. Wonder Book and Video has been in business since 1980 and online since 1997. We have over 1 Million books for sale on our website and another 1 Million books for sale in our 3 locations. Items on Abe are not necessarily in stock at our retail locations. Please do not call the stores to place orders for Abe Books sales. We have a very active online inventory and as such, we can receive multiple orders for the same item. We fill those orders on a first come first serve basis, but will refund promptly any items that are out of stock. Since 1980 it has always been about the books. ALL kinds of books from 95 cent children's paperbacks to five figure rare and collectibles. A merging of the old and new is where we started, and it is where we are today. Our retail stores have always been places where a reader can rush in looking for a title needed for a term paper that is due the next day, or where bibliophiles can get lost "in the stacks" for as long as they wish. In 2002 USAToday recognized us as "1 of 10 Great Old Bookstores", and we have been featured in numerous other newspaper and TV stories including Washington Post and CSpan. Members ABAA, ILAB.

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