We Think the World of You

Ackerley, J. R.

ISBN 10: 0140115544 / ISBN 13: 9780140115543

Published by Penguin Books Ltd, 1989

About this Item

Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading.

Seller Inventory # CHL10827803

Bibliographic Details

• Title: We Think the World of You
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140115544
• ISBN 13: 9780140115543
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Used; Good

About this title

Synopsis

This powerful short novel, with its extraordinary mixture of acute social realism and dark fantasy, was described by J. R. Ackerley himself as "a fairy tale for adults." Frank, the narrator, is a middle-aged civil servant, intelligent, acerbic, self-righteous, angry. He is in love with Johnny, a young, married, working-class man with a sweetly easy-going nature. When Johnny is sent to prison for committing a petty theft, Frank gets caught up in a struggle with Johnny's wife and parents for access to him. Their struggle finds a strange focus in Johnny's dog--a beautiful but neglected German shepherd named Evie. And it is she, in the end, who becomes the improbable and undeniable guardian of Frank's inner world.

We Think the World of You is J. R. Ackerley's only novel, and like all his work it is remarkable for its unconventionality and its power to surprise. In his brilliant memoirs My Father and Myself and My Dog Tulip, Ackerley revealed the fantasies that had shaped the facts his life. And in We Think the World of You he tells a subtle, funny, ultimately devastating story about bitterness and desire and the disappointment that can hide behind a mask of fulfillment. This unforgettable book is one of the outstanding contributions to postwar British fiction, and perhaps its author's finest achievement.

About the Author

J.R. Ackerley (1896–1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. His works include three memoirs, Hindoo Holiday, My Dog Tulip, and My Father and Myself, and a novel, We Think the World of You (all available as New York Review Books).

P.N. Furbank is the author of nine books, including biographies of Samuel Butler, Italo Svevo, and E.M. Forster.