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Wilt #1
Wilt
Henry Wilt, tied to a daft job and a domineering wife, has just been passed over for promotion yet again. Ahead of him at the Polytechnic stretch years of trying to thump literature into the heads of plasterers, joiners, butchers and the like. And things are no better at home where his massive wife, Eva, is given to boundless and unpredictable fits of enthusiasm -for transcendental meditation, yoga or the trampoline. But if Wilt can do nothing about his job, he can do something about his wife, in imagination at least, and his fantasies grow daily more murderous and more concrete.
After a peculiarly nasty experience at a party thrown by particularly nasty Americans, Wilt finds himself in several embarrassing positions: Eva stalks out in stratospheric dudgeon, and Wilt, under the inspiration of gin, puts one of his more vindictive fantasies into effect. But suspicions are instantly aroused and Wilt rapidly achieves an unenviable notoriety in the role of The Man Helping Police With Their Enquiries. Or is he exactly helping? Wilt's problem -although he's on the other side of the fence -is the same as Inspector Flint's: where is Eva Wilt? But Wilt begins to flourish in the heat of the investigation, and as the police stoke the flames of circumstantial evidence, Wilt deploys all his powers to show that the Law can't tell a Missing Person from a hole in the ground.
After a peculiarly nasty experience at a party thrown by particularly nasty Americans, Wilt finds himself in several embarrassing positions: Eva stalks out in stratospheric dudgeon, and Wilt, under the inspiration of gin, puts one of his more vindictive fantasies into effect. But suspicions are instantly aroused and Wilt rapidly achieves an unenviable notoriety in the role of The Man Helping Police With Their Enquiries. Or is he exactly helping? Wilt's problem -although he's on the other side of the fence -is the same as Inspector Flint's: where is Eva Wilt? But Wilt begins to flourish in the heat of the investigation, and as the police stoke the flames of circumstantial evidence, Wilt deploys all his powers to show that the Law can't tell a Missing Person from a hole in the ground.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
375 people are currently reading
6448 people want to read
About the author
Tom Sharpe
88 books559 followersTom Sharpe was an English satirical author, born in London and educated at Lancing College and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After National Service with the Royal Marines he moved to South Africa in 1951, doing social work and teaching in Natal, until deported in 1961.
His work in South Africa inspired the novels Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure. From 1963 until 1972 he was a History lecturer at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, which inspired his "Wilt" series Wilt, The Wilt Alternative, Wilt on High and Wilt in Nowhere.
His novels feature bitter and outrageous satire of the apartheid regime (Riotous Assembly and its sequel Indecent Exposure), dumbed- or watered-down education (the Wilt series), English class snobbery (Ancestral Vices, Porterhouse Blue, Grantchester Grind), the literary world (The Great Pursuit), political extremists of all stripes, political correctness, bureaucracy and stupidity in general. Characters may indulge in bizarre sexual practices, and coarser characters use very graphic and/or profane language in dialogue. Sharpe often parodies the language and style of specific authors commonly associated with the social group held up for ridicule. Sharpe's bestselling books have been translated into many languages.
His work in South Africa inspired the novels Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure. From 1963 until 1972 he was a History lecturer at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, which inspired his "Wilt" series Wilt, The Wilt Alternative, Wilt on High and Wilt in Nowhere.
His novels feature bitter and outrageous satire of the apartheid regime (Riotous Assembly and its sequel Indecent Exposure), dumbed- or watered-down education (the Wilt series), English class snobbery (Ancestral Vices, Porterhouse Blue, Grantchester Grind), the literary world (The Great Pursuit), political extremists of all stripes, political correctness, bureaucracy and stupidity in general. Characters may indulge in bizarre sexual practices, and coarser characters use very graphic and/or profane language in dialogue. Sharpe often parodies the language and style of specific authors commonly associated with the social group held up for ridicule. Sharpe's bestselling books have been translated into many languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 968 reviews
September 6, 2020
Teachers can be extraordinary, especially when a bit of potential suspicion of murder, marital problems, and fights with peers and pupils aggravate the curriculum.
I couldn´t name a humoristic author next to Tom Robbins who added so much of himself, his experiences, possibly even his, in this case, very strange, ideology and mentality to the mix. And is it just the obvious fun or is it deep cultural and educational system criticism too? Is the fact that the protagonists of most of his novels are wasted, unhappy, mad, and evil people a sign of deeper, underlying problems of society or is he just using the archetypes to construct the humor, is his dark view of humankind a realistic description or too pessimistic and subjective view? Guess what I roll with, har har.
However, we have a frustrated teacher and his strange esoteric karma wielding wife, an incompetent cop, and a school full of lunatics and Sharpe goes hardcore slapstick and sick humor to make it a tour de force of best, lowbrow entertainment. Call me misanthropic, but that´s just how people really are, disturbed, dirty, and always close to going insane, always balancing on the thin, potentially quickly infectious blade of mental stability.
The epic moments, carefully planned, prepared, and well-executed, because nobody sees such weird stuff coming, stay in mind because one hasn´t read something similar before and possibly won´t anymore, because I, at least, haven´t found a substitute to this kind of very strange writing. One is always questioning what demented, bizarre action or dialogue may come next, what poor Wilt will go through in the following chapter, how hilarious it will finally get. And believe me, nothing is left out and you will remember, even if you wish you could forget because it´s kind of sad too for people who have emotions.
Sharpe´s humor isn´t for everyone, but if dark, black, sarcastic comedy that doesn´t care about any conventions is your thing, this is the book to read. It´s tricky to make me giggle, even harder to wring out a laugh, but this thing made let me loose control several times, it´s just too hilarious. And I can´t say how he does it, a reread will hopefully help me understand the mechanisms, but this dry, cynic writing has a blurred magic all of its own.
Let me end with the familiar cultural pessimism Sharpe would definitively approve and the question why readers and publishers can´t get mature and enlightened enough to promote more disturbing, wrong, and sickening writing by shattered, progressive, critical minds to make the literature world a much more bizarre, educating, and disturbing place?
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
I couldn´t name a humoristic author next to Tom Robbins who added so much of himself, his experiences, possibly even his, in this case, very strange, ideology and mentality to the mix. And is it just the obvious fun or is it deep cultural and educational system criticism too? Is the fact that the protagonists of most of his novels are wasted, unhappy, mad, and evil people a sign of deeper, underlying problems of society or is he just using the archetypes to construct the humor, is his dark view of humankind a realistic description or too pessimistic and subjective view? Guess what I roll with, har har.
However, we have a frustrated teacher and his strange esoteric karma wielding wife, an incompetent cop, and a school full of lunatics and Sharpe goes hardcore slapstick and sick humor to make it a tour de force of best, lowbrow entertainment. Call me misanthropic, but that´s just how people really are, disturbed, dirty, and always close to going insane, always balancing on the thin, potentially quickly infectious blade of mental stability.
The epic moments, carefully planned, prepared, and well-executed, because nobody sees such weird stuff coming, stay in mind because one hasn´t read something similar before and possibly won´t anymore, because I, at least, haven´t found a substitute to this kind of very strange writing. One is always questioning what demented, bizarre action or dialogue may come next, what poor Wilt will go through in the following chapter, how hilarious it will finally get. And believe me, nothing is left out and you will remember, even if you wish you could forget because it´s kind of sad too for people who have emotions.
Sharpe´s humor isn´t for everyone, but if dark, black, sarcastic comedy that doesn´t care about any conventions is your thing, this is the book to read. It´s tricky to make me giggle, even harder to wring out a laugh, but this thing made let me loose control several times, it´s just too hilarious. And I can´t say how he does it, a reread will hopefully help me understand the mechanisms, but this dry, cynic writing has a blurred magic all of its own.
Let me end with the familiar cultural pessimism Sharpe would definitively approve and the question why readers and publishers can´t get mature and enlightened enough to promote more disturbing, wrong, and sickening writing by shattered, progressive, critical minds to make the literature world a much more bizarre, educating, and disturbing place?
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
August 21, 2023
Better Late Than Never
Scatological sarcasm is a Sharpe speciality. In Porterhouse Blue he uses it to parody Oxbridge tradition. Wilt goes for the jugular of California-chic, a somewhat more recent tradition inserting itself into British life during the 1970’s.
Being in a somewhat sheltered environment in the 70’s educational-wise, as Wilt’s wife Eva might say (I spent most of that period on a ship at sea or in the semi-dream state of a married graduate student), I missed a great deal of the development in popular culture. The mere fact that I had never read Sharpe suggests my naive isolation. This gap had potentially serious life-consequences.
Among other things I was entirely unprepared for the revolution in sexual mores going on in the world entirely without me. I was Philip Larkin in reverse, stuck happily before the Beatles album in 1963. Only decades later did I encounter people like Sharpe’s Prigsheims who inhabit an alternative universe of casual guile, equally casual promiscuity and of such exotic self-certainty that they are all but irresistible to anyone but a Wilt-like nebbish (whom I undoubtedly resembled).
I survived the experience more or less whole, but only with some considerable emotional confusion. It strikes me that contemporary fictional commentary like Sharpe’s, which articulates and sends up the latest behavioural fashions, would have been awfully helpful as therapy both before and after such events - if only to provide some reassurance of one’s sanity. Farce, it seems to me, makes a real contribution to what’s come to be called Continuing Education.
Scatological sarcasm is a Sharpe speciality. In Porterhouse Blue he uses it to parody Oxbridge tradition. Wilt goes for the jugular of California-chic, a somewhat more recent tradition inserting itself into British life during the 1970’s.
Being in a somewhat sheltered environment in the 70’s educational-wise, as Wilt’s wife Eva might say (I spent most of that period on a ship at sea or in the semi-dream state of a married graduate student), I missed a great deal of the development in popular culture. The mere fact that I had never read Sharpe suggests my naive isolation. This gap had potentially serious life-consequences.
Among other things I was entirely unprepared for the revolution in sexual mores going on in the world entirely without me. I was Philip Larkin in reverse, stuck happily before the Beatles album in 1963. Only decades later did I encounter people like Sharpe’s Prigsheims who inhabit an alternative universe of casual guile, equally casual promiscuity and of such exotic self-certainty that they are all but irresistible to anyone but a Wilt-like nebbish (whom I undoubtedly resembled).
I survived the experience more or less whole, but only with some considerable emotional confusion. It strikes me that contemporary fictional commentary like Sharpe’s, which articulates and sends up the latest behavioural fashions, would have been awfully helpful as therapy both before and after such events - if only to provide some reassurance of one’s sanity. Farce, it seems to me, makes a real contribution to what’s come to be called Continuing Education.
Read
November 19, 2016This is still a very funny book, surely a gold-standard member of the British humour club. It was released in 1976 and it must have been regarded as terribly risqué then.
Tom Sharpe was a masterful writer. The story, of course, is absurd but that's one of the things I enjoyed about it. It's a short, (dare I say it) Sharpe read and if you feel the need to escape from reality for a few hours, I couldn't recommend a novel more highly.
I'm sure some of my high school English teachers would have had palpitations to read some of his sentences. (I counted six or seven instances of 'and' in one sentence). And his use of adverbs far exceeds what is fashionable nowadays. But I sense he broke these rules for effect -- because he clearly knew what he was doing. I wouldn't mind being half-as-good a writer.
He conjured up some great characters. The central one is Henry Wilt, who is wonderfully obtuse.
He made good use of stereotypes too (yes, some police really were that dumb years ago) (having worked for a while in academia I saw no evidence that academics would mend their factional back-biting ways in a hurry, so they ring quite true on the book) (Americans did seem a bit odd back then) (and I'm sure Wilt's wife would have got over her fixation for Harpic toilet cleaner).
He throws all these characters together and we get to see how they interact! The result is one hell of a comedic novel.
Tom Sharpe was a masterful writer. The story, of course, is absurd but that's one of the things I enjoyed about it. It's a short, (dare I say it) Sharpe read and if you feel the need to escape from reality for a few hours, I couldn't recommend a novel more highly.
I'm sure some of my high school English teachers would have had palpitations to read some of his sentences. (I counted six or seven instances of 'and' in one sentence). And his use of adverbs far exceeds what is fashionable nowadays. But I sense he broke these rules for effect -- because he clearly knew what he was doing. I wouldn't mind being half-as-good a writer.
He conjured up some great characters. The central one is Henry Wilt, who is wonderfully obtuse.
He made good use of stereotypes too (yes, some police really were that dumb years ago) (having worked for a while in academia I saw no evidence that academics would mend their factional back-biting ways in a hurry, so they ring quite true on the book) (Americans did seem a bit odd back then) (and I'm sure Wilt's wife would have got over her fixation for Harpic toilet cleaner).
He throws all these characters together and we get to see how they interact! The result is one hell of a comedic novel.
April 26, 2009
Very rarely do I find a book so clever and witty that I actually laugh out loud as I turn the pages. (Unfortunately, I've come across many a book that had me laughing out loud because the writing was just bloody awful, but that's a topic for another day.) Until recently I had never heard of Tom Sharpe, nor of his books--in particular, his outrageously wonderful novel, WILT (published decades ago), until I was given a copy as a gift by a delightfully ornery friend. What a gem! (On both counts.)
Henry Wilt is in a rut. For the past ten years he's been attempting to teach literature to blue collar apprentices (who are far more interested in discussing the intricacies of shagging) at the local technical institute; he's also been enduring the antics of Eva, his most eccentric wife, who throws herself (with herculean vigor) into one phase after another (judo, horticulture, et al) in an effort to "find herself". So mundane and drab is his life that Henry is actually euphoric to be the subject of a murder investigation once Eva goes missing--and after he's been seen stuffing a life-size inflatable doll down a piling hole at a construction site. The misunderstandings are compounded, Henry enjoys more and more his manipulations of the authorities, until madness and mayhem rule the day.
Sharpe's prose is exceedingly clever, articulate, witty--biting. The dialogue among his colleagues at the technical institute--especially as they witness the doll being "pulled" from the hole--had me laughing so hard I had to get up from my chair. WILT is a remarkably fun read, and enthusiastically recommended. If you run across a copy, either online or at your favorite used bookstore, by all means grab!
Henry Wilt is in a rut. For the past ten years he's been attempting to teach literature to blue collar apprentices (who are far more interested in discussing the intricacies of shagging) at the local technical institute; he's also been enduring the antics of Eva, his most eccentric wife, who throws herself (with herculean vigor) into one phase after another (judo, horticulture, et al) in an effort to "find herself". So mundane and drab is his life that Henry is actually euphoric to be the subject of a murder investigation once Eva goes missing--and after he's been seen stuffing a life-size inflatable doll down a piling hole at a construction site. The misunderstandings are compounded, Henry enjoys more and more his manipulations of the authorities, until madness and mayhem rule the day.
Sharpe's prose is exceedingly clever, articulate, witty--biting. The dialogue among his colleagues at the technical institute--especially as they witness the doll being "pulled" from the hole--had me laughing so hard I had to get up from my chair. WILT is a remarkably fun read, and enthusiastically recommended. If you run across a copy, either online or at your favorite used bookstore, by all means grab!
August 6, 2020
Such hilarity! Tom Sharpe comedy capers are brilliant. The TV film adaption starring Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith had me in fits. The film did the book justice. 👍🐯
The vision of a naked Griff tied to a blow up sex doll! Uugh!
The vision of a naked Griff tied to a blow up sex doll! Uugh!
February 11, 2021
Slapstick humor; utter batshit philosophies, marriage goes belly up; police chief loses his mind; the Seventees goes haywire.
Tom Sharpe must have had a roaring time writing this crazy story. I laughed myself silly, thanks to the excellent narrator, Andrew Sachs. The reader can take anything from this 1976 situation comedy. It must have been quite risqué at the time. And now it will be even tenfold more so. I just had a good laugh for the craziness of it all.
Narrator and author were both brilliant!
Tom Sharpe must have had a roaring time writing this crazy story. I laughed myself silly, thanks to the excellent narrator, Andrew Sachs. The reader can take anything from this 1976 situation comedy. It must have been quite risqué at the time. And now it will be even tenfold more so. I just had a good laugh for the craziness of it all.
Narrator and author were both brilliant!
October 19, 2019
Wow.
This is the funniest book I have ever read.
I practically choked to death with laughter on a London Underground train long ago, unable to catch my breath from laughing.
Everyone stared at me and some knew the book and grinned. I calmed down eventually, re-opened the book and was off again almost on the floor with laughter.
This is the funniest book I have ever read.
I practically choked to death with laughter on a London Underground train long ago, unable to catch my breath from laughing.
Everyone stared at me and some knew the book and grinned. I calmed down eventually, re-opened the book and was off again almost on the floor with laughter.
August 4, 2012
Don't make the mistake of reading this book in public. Everyone will think you're crazy. I have rarely laughed so much reading anything. It's very light but totally hilarious. After reading this I became a fan of Tom Sharpe and read more of his books. They are perfect if you are looking for light relief or need cheering up.
July 6, 2018
Comédia inteligente, carregada de sátira e humor negro. O pior são os clichés algo datados dos anos 1970, e os personagens por vezes demasiado previsíveis. Ainda assim envolve-nos bem, a ponto de estar a passear na rua e começar a rir-me sozinho ao recordar sequências do livro. Uma leitura leve, ainda que engenhosa, capaz de nos proporcionar momentos de muito boa disposição.
July 13, 2015
Libro repleto de situaciones hilarantes, diálogos surrealistas y personajes muy particulares. Y es que no nos cansaremos de repetirlo: ¡cómo nos gusta el humor inglés! Reseña completa:
http://www.libros-prohibidos.com/tom-...
http://www.libros-prohibidos.com/tom-...
November 1, 2021
La "joya" humorística de Tom Sharpe. Humor absurdo, británico, cínico y con crítica social en el que vemos a un profe de instituto que... no cuento más.
Esperaba más y esperaba menos, no sé como decirlo. En realidad es un 7/10, se deja leer y la muñeca hinchable constituyó un hito de irreverencia en su día (es de 1976).
En general sí sonreí, que no es poco.
Esperaba más y esperaba menos, no sé como decirlo. En realidad es un 7/10, se deja leer y la muñeca hinchable constituyó un hito de irreverencia en su día (es de 1976).
En general sí sonreí, que no es poco.
August 20, 2020
Muy entretenido y divertido. Humor británico sazonado con una buena dosis de incorrección política. 😎
July 1, 2022
Una grandísima novela. Te atrapa y te sacude. La terminé en cuatro o cinco días. No es solo humor inglés, es humor universal. Además, posee una capacidad muy ácida para penetrar en la psicología de los temas que trata. Si has estudiado una rama de letras, definitivamente, es un libro más que recomendable.
March 7, 2020
I special-ordered a (well) used copy of this OOP book, hoping for some laughs. Alas, it was not to be. One never knows with humour, especially British humor. Oh, well. Caveat lector. Not for me!
You may want to read some of the (many) negative reviews here before making a special effort to find this one. OTOH, you might love it. Humor is weird that way.
You may want to read some of the (many) negative reviews here before making a special effort to find this one. OTOH, you might love it. Humor is weird that way.
April 17, 2010
The funniest book I've come across in which sex with a blow-up doll is a major theme. It's a genre I'm only marginally familiar with, so no doubt I'm missing all the nuances.
I know, a gap in my literary education. But you can't find time for everything.
I know, a gap in my literary education. But you can't find time for everything.
May 31, 2022
Una historia bastante entretenida en el que Henry Wilt vivirá una experiencia inolvidable.
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A quite entertaining story in which Henry Wilt will live an unforgettable experience.
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A quite entertaining story in which Henry Wilt will live an unforgettable experience.
December 7, 2014
Tom Sharpe was arguably the most accomplished British humourist since PG Wodehouse and Wilt is possibly his best loved book. Sharpe drew on his experiences as a polytechnic lecturer in conceiving the character of hapless and unhappily married Henry Wilt, who spends his days teaching Lord of the Flies to disinterested apprentice butchers and his nights fantasising about killing his less than sympathetic wife, Eva. However, when Eva goes missing after a disastrous party in which Henry finds himself tied to an inflatable sex doll, things take a decided turn for the anarchic. Sharpe's characters are a delightful melange of the awful and absurd, amounting a to a caustic observation on the state of British society at the time. Compellingly hilarious from start to finish.
June 30, 2025
Може би е била смешна и оригинална книга през 1976 година, но сега не е...
Четеше ми се добра сатира, но първите ѝ петдесетина страници успяха единствено да ме отегчат почти до смърт!
Четеше ми се добра сатира, но първите ѝ петдесетина страници успяха единствено да ме отегчат почти до смърт!
May 26, 2016
-Graciosa e intrascendente, sello de identidad del autor.-
Género. Novela.
Lo que nos cuenta. Henry Wilt es un hombre anodino que enseña Humanidades en una escuela de artes y oficios, pasea al perro, se siente frustrado pero vive con ello y está casado desde hace doce años con Eva en un matrimonio convencional (léase “ligeramente amargo pero sin eventos catastróficos que requieran de abogados”), pero cuando Eva hace una nueva amiga las cosas se empezarán a torcer para Wilt y su matrimonio hasta extremos inesperados que le llevarán a ser sospechoso del homicidio de su mujer. Primer libro de la serie dedicada a las desventuras de Wilt.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Género. Novela.
Lo que nos cuenta. Henry Wilt es un hombre anodino que enseña Humanidades en una escuela de artes y oficios, pasea al perro, se siente frustrado pero vive con ello y está casado desde hace doce años con Eva en un matrimonio convencional (léase “ligeramente amargo pero sin eventos catastróficos que requieran de abogados”), pero cuando Eva hace una nueva amiga las cosas se empezarán a torcer para Wilt y su matrimonio hasta extremos inesperados que le llevarán a ser sospechoso del homicidio de su mujer. Primer libro de la serie dedicada a las desventuras de Wilt.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
May 18, 2016
Una historia delirante que te mantiene la carcajada durante todo su recorrido. El humor inglés a pleno rendimiento y lo mejor es que sus 40 años de vida no le han sentado nada mal y tiene todo para convertirse en un gran clásico.
August 10, 2020
Sex hihi! Sex haha! Sex hoho! Carry on Laughing.
Another one-star reviewer (Manny) wrapped it up quite nicely: "The funniest book I have come across in which sex with a blow-up doll is a major theme."
Another one-star reviewer (Manny) wrapped it up quite nicely: "The funniest book I have come across in which sex with a blow-up doll is a major theme."
February 10, 2017
"Digamos que o homem é um animal domesticado com certas componentes selvagens dentro dele."
"Wilt" é um livro dominado pelo humor negro e Tom Sharpe conseguiu ser maravilhosamente bem sucedido na tarefa em manter o interesse e crueldade durante uma história de mal-entendidos, caracterizada pelo absurdo (intencional ou não).
Wilt é um professor de Estudos de Formação Geral, que ensina Instaladores de Gás, Estucadores, Alvenéus e Canalizadores. Quer dizer, Wil tenta ensiná-los há 10 anos, mas a verdade é que os seus alunos passam todo o tempo a discutir os mais variados assuntos.
Wilt é pessoa passiva, sem motivação, determinação ou força para fazer valer os seus desejos. Mas tem uma esposa com diversas aspirações de natureza social e picos de entusiasmo que compensam a personalidade de Wilt, pelo seu exagero.
Porém, há uma coisa que Wilt tem e usa: a sua imaginação. Durante os passeios com o cão, deixa-se fantasiar sobre como assassinar Eva, a sua mulher.
"O sexo e a comida são muito parecidos. Pouco muitas vezes é melhor que muito poucas vezes."
Depois Eva conhece uma lésbica feminista e o seu marido. Arrasta Wilt para uma festa, depois de o assustar com uma emancipação sexual confusa.A festa é escandalosamente parecida com uma orgia de mau gosto. Na casa há um boneca insuflável horrível capaz de tirar o sono a qualquer um!
Juntam-se todos os acontecimentos, pessoas, objectos e antecedentes e temos um crime não cometido e um suspeito totalmente tranquilo e honesto que encontra a liberdade no interrogatório e não pretende nunca mais abdicar da mesma.
Dois detectives e um advogado desistente mais tarde, estamos completamente conquistados pelas peculiares, mas apuradas observações sociais de Tom Sharpe.
"Desde que se diga às pessoas aquilo que elas querem ouvir, estão dispostas a acreditar na história menos plausível que se possa imaginar."
"Wilt" é um livro dominado pelo humor negro e Tom Sharpe conseguiu ser maravilhosamente bem sucedido na tarefa em manter o interesse e crueldade durante uma história de mal-entendidos, caracterizada pelo absurdo (intencional ou não).
Wilt é um professor de Estudos de Formação Geral, que ensina Instaladores de Gás, Estucadores, Alvenéus e Canalizadores. Quer dizer, Wil tenta ensiná-los há 10 anos, mas a verdade é que os seus alunos passam todo o tempo a discutir os mais variados assuntos.
Wilt é pessoa passiva, sem motivação, determinação ou força para fazer valer os seus desejos. Mas tem uma esposa com diversas aspirações de natureza social e picos de entusiasmo que compensam a personalidade de Wilt, pelo seu exagero.
Porém, há uma coisa que Wilt tem e usa: a sua imaginação. Durante os passeios com o cão, deixa-se fantasiar sobre como assassinar Eva, a sua mulher.
"O sexo e a comida são muito parecidos. Pouco muitas vezes é melhor que muito poucas vezes."
Depois Eva conhece uma lésbica feminista e o seu marido. Arrasta Wilt para uma festa, depois de o assustar com uma emancipação sexual confusa.A festa é escandalosamente parecida com uma orgia de mau gosto. Na casa há um boneca insuflável horrível capaz de tirar o sono a qualquer um!
Juntam-se todos os acontecimentos, pessoas, objectos e antecedentes e temos um crime não cometido e um suspeito totalmente tranquilo e honesto que encontra a liberdade no interrogatório e não pretende nunca mais abdicar da mesma.
Dois detectives e um advogado desistente mais tarde, estamos completamente conquistados pelas peculiares, mas apuradas observações sociais de Tom Sharpe.
"Desde que se diga às pessoas aquilo que elas querem ouvir, estão dispostas a acreditar na história menos plausível que se possa imaginar."
November 11, 2011
The first Tom Sharpe I ever read - thanks to Ian who set me on the road to verbal perdition. This is a genius book and a hysterical read. His strengths are the use of dialogue and scene setting, both of which appear superficially normal and descend into mayhem very quickly. This was an embarrassing book to read, causing me to laugh so much I had to stop reading several times, and the theme of the underdog rising to the surface, hapless and helpless, is brilliant.
November 21, 2023
Hilarante!!! Humor sarcástico para despejarte un par de tardes.
October 21, 2018
Digamos que el hombre es un animal domesticado, con elementos de salvajismo…
October 29, 2024
I used to enjoy Tom Sharpe as a teenager in the 1970s. My memories of Wilt (1979) were that it was a short and very funny novel. I can confirm that this is still the case 45 years later. It's very un-PC and unreconstructed but still, fundamentally, extremely amusing and it had me consistently laughing out loud. I look forward to revisting more of Tom Sharpe's classic books.
Henry Wilt, tied to a daft job and a domineering wife, has just been passed over for promotion yet again. Ahead of him at the Polytechnic stretch years of trying to thump literature into the heads of plasterers, joiners, butchers and the like. And things are no better at home where his massive wife, Eva, is given to boundless and unpredictable fits of enthusiasm -for transcendental meditation, yoga or the trampoline. But if Wilt can do nothing about his job, he can do something about his wife, in imagination at least, and his fantasies grow daily more murderous and more concrete.
After a peculiarly nasty experience at a party thrown by particularly nasty Americans, Wilt finds himself in several embarrassing positions: Eva stalks out in stratospheric dudgeon, and Wilt, under the inspiration of gin, puts one of his more vindictive fantasies into effect. But suspicions are instantly aroused and Wilt rapidly achieves an unenviable notoriety in the role of The Man Helping Police With Their Enquiries. Or is he exactly helping? Wilt's problem -although he's on the other side of the fence -is the same as Inspector Flint's: where is Eva Wilt? But Wilt begins to flourish in the heat of the investigation, and as the police stoke the flames of circumstantial evidence, Wilt deploys all his powers to show that the Law can't tell a Missing Person from a hole in the ground.
Henry Wilt, tied to a daft job and a domineering wife, has just been passed over for promotion yet again. Ahead of him at the Polytechnic stretch years of trying to thump literature into the heads of plasterers, joiners, butchers and the like. And things are no better at home where his massive wife, Eva, is given to boundless and unpredictable fits of enthusiasm -for transcendental meditation, yoga or the trampoline. But if Wilt can do nothing about his job, he can do something about his wife, in imagination at least, and his fantasies grow daily more murderous and more concrete.
After a peculiarly nasty experience at a party thrown by particularly nasty Americans, Wilt finds himself in several embarrassing positions: Eva stalks out in stratospheric dudgeon, and Wilt, under the inspiration of gin, puts one of his more vindictive fantasies into effect. But suspicions are instantly aroused and Wilt rapidly achieves an unenviable notoriety in the role of The Man Helping Police With Their Enquiries. Or is he exactly helping? Wilt's problem -although he's on the other side of the fence -is the same as Inspector Flint's: where is Eva Wilt? But Wilt begins to flourish in the heat of the investigation, and as the police stoke the flames of circumstantial evidence, Wilt deploys all his powers to show that the Law can't tell a Missing Person from a hole in the ground.
November 20, 2016
One of the funniest books I ever read. It and its sequel made me laugh out loud, as did other Sharpe books, and it's good to see it's taking on new life. Oddly, the BBC rendition, much like their Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was surprisingly unfunny although faithful in both cases to the material.
March 9, 2016
Creo que es el mejor libro de humor que he leído nunca. Me reí muchísimo, y a todas las personas a las que se lo recomendé o regalé les gustó mucho también. Los siguientes a este libro están bien, pero nunca superarán a este primero. Me quedé con ganas de ver la adaptación a teatro.
August 25, 2021
Ненормално яка книга! Не помня откога не се бях смял толкова. Супер забавна и пиперлива комедия, силно препоръчвам :)
August 27, 2018
Imagine an academic novel written by the Monty Pythons and David Lodge and you will have an idea of this wonderful bit of comic fiction. Written in 1976, some of it is a bit dated, but for the most part it is still a wonderfully fresh sendup of domestic life in bottom level academia.
Henry Wilt is an Assistant Lecturer (Grade Two)at the Fenland College of Arts and Technology, teaching Candide and Lord of the Flies to Apprentice Gasfitters and Meatcutters as part of a government mandated enrichment program. His wife Eva is a large, slightly dim, enthusiastically active woman with constantly changing self-improvement plans. One week it's judo, the next opera, followed by poetry or perhaps flowers arranging.
When they attend a party at the home of an American couple of Henry's workmates, all hell breaks loose. The party is a drunken orgy with copious liquor, sex toys and general bad behavior. Henry winds up in an unfortunate encounter with his host's inflatable sex doll, and Eva gets carried off by the host couple on a lost weekend in a stolen boat. The wife, a former sex surrogate, has designs on Eva, who has no idea what in the world she is talking about.
Henry's attempt to rid himself of the doll results in him being accused of Eva's murder. His protestations of innocence lead the police to decide that he has not only killed his wife, but the missing couple as well.
It's laugh out loud funny in more places than I can count. The language is a wonderful mash up of academic jargon, feminist rhetoric and psychobabble. It was a great read the first time 30 years ago, and it still is.
Henry Wilt is an Assistant Lecturer (Grade Two)at the Fenland College of Arts and Technology, teaching Candide and Lord of the Flies to Apprentice Gasfitters and Meatcutters as part of a government mandated enrichment program. His wife Eva is a large, slightly dim, enthusiastically active woman with constantly changing self-improvement plans. One week it's judo, the next opera, followed by poetry or perhaps flowers arranging.
When they attend a party at the home of an American couple of Henry's workmates, all hell breaks loose. The party is a drunken orgy with copious liquor, sex toys and general bad behavior. Henry winds up in an unfortunate encounter with his host's inflatable sex doll, and Eva gets carried off by the host couple on a lost weekend in a stolen boat. The wife, a former sex surrogate, has designs on Eva, who has no idea what in the world she is talking about.
Henry's attempt to rid himself of the doll results in him being accused of Eva's murder. His protestations of innocence lead the police to decide that he has not only killed his wife, but the missing couple as well.
It's laugh out loud funny in more places than I can count. The language is a wonderful mash up of academic jargon, feminist rhetoric and psychobabble. It was a great read the first time 30 years ago, and it still is.
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