From Booklist
A single day in the inner workings of a London museum proves deliciously juicy in this satire, a best-seller in the U.K. This is no ordinary day at BRIT: The Museum of British History; it's the carefully choreographed opening of a major exhibit about the eighteenth century (entitled simply "elegance"), featuring a Gainsborough painting owned by museum chairman Sir Lewis Burslem, with festivities including a sit-down dinner for 400 with a royal as honored guest as well as a controversial trustees' meeting. Yet despite the model provenance of the painting that is the brand for the exhibit, curator Jane Vaughan has misgivings about the greyhound in the lower left-hand corner. Although the day's events could prove pivotal to the careers and love lives of others, Jane is dogged, and--as expected from the start--things go awry. Waterfield, who knows this territory, gives us politics, money, romance, and a chef who ends up in a vat of raspberry coulis--great entertainment. Michele Leber
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
The Observer (London) A rumbustious and hugely entertaining satire.
Book Description
In this brilliantly witty satire -- a bestseller in the UK -- a prestigious British museum launches an ambitious new exhibit...which quickly becomes a seasonal nightmare. Think that a day in the life of a London museum director is cold, quiet, and austere? Think again. Giles Waterfield brings a combination of intellectual comedy and knockabout farce to the subject in this story of one long day in a museum full of scandals, screw-ups¨and more than a few scalawags. At the beginning of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner, Auberon, the brilliant but troubled director of the Museum of British History, is preparing one midsummer's day for the opening of the most spectacular exhibition his museum has ever staged. The centerpiece is a painting of the intriguing Lady St. John strikingly attired as Puck, which hasn't been shown in London in a hundred years. As the day passes, the portrait arouses disquieting questions, jealousies, rivalries -- and more than a few strange affections -- in the minds of the museum staff. As guests and employees pour in, the tension rises -- and Auberon himself has the hilariously ridiculous task of keeping the peace, without losing his own sense of reality as well. For everyone who loves the farce of David Lodge and Michael Frayn, or even the Antiques Roadshow, the fast-paced, hilarious satire of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner is sure to delight and entertain.
The Hound in the Left-hand Corner FROM THE PUBLISHER
Think that a day in the life of a London museum director is cold, quiet, and austere? Think again. Giles Waterfield brings a combination of intellectual comedy and knockabout farce to the subject in this story of one long day in a museum full of scandals, screw-ups'and more than a few scalawags.
At the beginning of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner, Auberon, the brilliant but troubled director of the Museum of British History, is preparing one midsummer's day for the opening of the most spectacular exhibition his museum has ever staged. The centerpiece is a painting of the intriguing Lady St. John strikingly attired as Puck, which hasn't been shown in London in a hundred years. As the day passes, the portrait arouses disquieting questions, jealousies, rivalries -- and more than a few strange affections -- in the minds of the museum staff. As guests and employees pour in, the tension rises -- and Auberon himself has the hilariously ridiculous task of keeping the peace, without losing his own sense of reality as well.
For everyone who loves the farce of David Lodge and Michael Frayn, or even the Antiques Roadshow, the fast-paced, hilarious satire of The Hound in the Left-hand Corner is sure to delight and entertain.
FROM THE CRITICS
Kirkus Reviews
A mad romp through the back alleys of a London museum, Waterfield's send-up of high art and high society is one of the best academic satires to hit these shores since David Lodge's Small World. BRIT (formerly known as the Museum of English History) is a respectable old British institution that nobody cares for very much: Its curators, trustees, and staff all basically want to make a name for themselves so that they can move on to somewhere better. Auberon Booth, the self-satisfied director, came up with the idea of renaming the place for the millennium and launching a series of snazzy, press-catching exhibitions ("Luxury" was a great success, as was "Slums") in a bid to jack up the museum's public profile. His latest show, "Elegance," centers on a Gainsborough portrait (Lady St. John as Puck) of an 18th-century aristocrat dressed for a masquerade. The Gainsborough belongs to Sir Lewis Burslem, the nouveau riche Chairman of the Board of Trustees, who'd wanted to sit on the board at the National Gallery and may get the chance to do so if the exhibition goes well. To get it off to a good start, Sir Lewis has arranged a gala opening-night banquet, focused both on the portrait (which will be wheeled into the dining room) and on the Duke of Clarence (who will be the first member of the Royal Family to set foot in BRIT since its renaming). Nothing can be permitted to go wrong, of course-always a recipe for disaster. Without giving anything away, let's just say difficulties arise that could attract the attention of the security chief, the insurance underwriters, the art historians, the press, and the art forgery division of Scotland Yard. Not to mention Nigella Lawson, who would have been a bighelp to the hapless caterers. Hilarious, deft, and quick: Waterfield, in his US debut, sniffs out pretense and vanity with a bad-natured sense of humor worthy of Hogarth. Agent: Felicity Rubinstein
Art & Photography
Book Info
