{"product_id":"9780062271839","title":"A Curious Invitation : The Forty Greatest Parties in Fiction","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eA Curious Invitation\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Suzette Field\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eForty of the greatest fictional festivities as seen through the eyes of the world's greatest writers.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeople love to party. And writers love to attend and document these occasions. The party is a useful literary device, not only for social commentary and satire but also as an occasion where characters can meet, fall in and out of love, or even get murdered.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Curious Invitation\u003c\/em\u003e is a humorous and informative guide to literature's most memorable parties. Some of these parties are depictions of real events, like the Duchess of Richmond's ball on the eve of battle with Napoleon in Thackeray's \u003cem\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/em\u003e; others draw on the authors' experience of the society they lived in, such as Lady Metroland's party in Evelyn Waugh's \u003cem\u003eVile Bodies\u003c\/em\u003e; while others come straight from the writer's bizarre imagination, like Douglas Adams' flying party above an unknown planet from \u003cem\u003eThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWitty, entertaining, and full of fabulous detail, \u003cem\u003eA Curious Invitation\u003c\/em\u003e offers readers the chance to crash some of the great parties in literary history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e“Holiday hostesses will find much to inspire in London impresario Suzette Field’s \u003ci\u003eA Curious Invitation\u003c\/i\u003e, from the fancy dress ball at Manderley to Jay Gatsby’s Prohibition-era decadence.”\u003cbr\u003e“In ‘A Curious Invitation,’ Suzette Field collects 40 and dissects them with great wit and insight. . . . Re-living the festivities in well-loved books is part of the charm of this one; even more exhilarating, perhaps, is meeting intriguing new writers.”\u003cbr\u003e“With panache, attention to arresting details, and a flair for mixing literary classics with pop-culture hits, prominent London event planner Field invites readers to forty fictional parties . . . She quotes lavishly from her sources to splendid effect.”\u003cbr\u003e“Suzette Field is a genuinely talented story teller. Her book possess a playful lightness of touch, but is pregnant with fact and meaning. It is both amusing and informative. Never has education been such a pleasure, never reading a learned exposition so delightful.”\u003cbr\u003e“London event planner Field takes us across time and continents to 40 of the best parties in fiction. Like the social pages of a newspaper - but way more entertaining . . . Armchair party-crashing at its finest.”\u003cbr\u003e“It takes a book like Suzette Field’s \u003ci\u003eA Curious Invitation\u003c\/i\u003e to remind us of the absolute centrality of social entertainment to the way in which a literary classic works its spell.”\u003cbr\u003e“Need a bit of entertaining inspiration? Take a page from a new book on the greatest gatherings that never were.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780062271839\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":41061427413198,"sku":"9780062271839","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/9780062271839_d1fa0753-5ad7-4f68-9f07-d1e064410a47.jpg?v=1652101699","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780062271839","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}