Ninety-Nine Novels: Darconville's Cat by Alexander Theroux

The International Anthony Burgess Foundation Podcast

In 1984, Anthony Burgess published Ninety-Nine Novels, a selection of his favourite novels in English since 1939. The list is typically idiosyncratic, and shows the breadth of Burgess's interest in fiction. This podcast, by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, explores the novels on Burgess's list with the help of writers, critics and other special guests.

In this episode, we’re exploring the complex, controversial and language-rich novel Darconville’s Cat by Alexander Theroux with our guest, writer George Salis.

The novel tells the story of Alaric Darconville, an English instructor at an all-girls’ college in Virginia. He is intensely romantic and intellectual, and eventually falls in love with one of his students. He views their relationship as a great love affair, but his romanticism blinds him to reality. Eventually, he meets the mysterious Dr Crucifer, an unrepentant misogynist who attempt to brainwash the younger man to his way of thinking.

Alexander Theroux was born in Massachusetts in 1939, and is the author of four novels, four collections of poetry, three collections of short stories and several works of non-fiction. His most recent publication is the collection of poetry, Godfather Drosselmeier’s Tears & Other Poems.

George Salis is a novelist, literary critic and editor. His novel Sea Above, Sun Below was praised by Alexander Theroux as having ‘electricity on every page’. He is the editor of The Colliderscope, an online publication that celebrates innovative literature, and the host of its companion podcast. He has recently completed his maximalist novel Morphological Echoes.

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BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

By Alexander Theroux

Three Wogs, including 'Theroux Metaphrastes' (1972)

Laura Warholic (2007)

By others:

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

Girls at Play by Paul Theroux (1969)

Plus by Joseph McElroy (1977)

Love in a Dead Language by Lee Siegel (1999)

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LINKS

Sea Above, Sun Below by George Salis at Amazon

The Collidescope, George Salis's website

The Collidescope Podcast

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

The theme music for the Ninety-Nine Novels podcast is Anthony Burgess’s Concerto for Flute, Strings and Piano in D Minor, performed by No Dice Collective.

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