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Book

Cloudland revisited : a misspent youth in books and film

Call Number

  • 813 P4372 (CEN)

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Publication Information

New York : Library of America, [2024]

Physical Description

xxi, 200 pages ; 20 cm

Summary

"From October 1948 to October 1953, The New Yorker published humorist S.J. Perelman's 'Cloudland Revisited' series: twenty-two reviews of once-popular books and silent films whose expiration dates had passed. All but forgotten even at the time, they were nonetheless part of Perelman's youth and made an indelible mark on him. ln the comic genius's biting satire they live once again: Gertrude Atherton's sensationalist fantasy Black Oxen; Sax Rohmer's supervillain blockbuster The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu; the 'underwater' silent film adaptation of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea; Edgar Rice Burrough's 1914 novel Tarzan of the Apes; and George Barr McCutcheon's 1901 historical fantasy novel Graustark-the Game of Thrones of its era-which launched numerous sequels and film adaptations. Here for the first time all twenty-two of Perelman's reappraisals are collected. With self-deprecating humor and frequent embarrassment, Perelman reflects on how rereading and rewatching brings us in contact with how we, like an old book or film, have both changed and remained the same. This paperback includes a tribute to Perelman's art by another New Yorker favorite, Adam Gopnik"--

Contents

  • Introduction / Into Your Tent I'll Creep
  • Tuberoses and Tigers
  • How Ruritanian Can You Get?
  • Sodom in the Suburbs
  • Lady, Play Your Endocrines
  • Great Aches from Little Boudoirs Grow
  • Antic Hey-Hey
  • Why, Doctor, What Big Green Eyes You Have!
  • Rock-a-Bye, Viscount, in the Treetop
  • Four-and-Twenty Blackjacks
  • Oh, Sing Again That Song of Venery
  • When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Films ...
  • Roll on, Thou Deep and Dark Scenario, Roll
  • Vintage Swine
  • The Wickedest Woman in Larchmont
  • I'm Sorry I Made Me Cry
  • By the Waters of Razz-Ma-Tazz
  • "M" Is for the Migraine That She Gave Me
  • Mayfair Mama, Turn Your Damper Down
  • Hungarian Goulash, with Battered Noodles
  • It Takes Two to Tango, but Only One to Squirm
  • Shades of Young Girls among the Flummery

Subjects

Genres

Humor.

Added Authors

Adam Gopnik