Picture of Nobody

by Philip Owens, Allen Bratton (Foreword)

Transposed into the early twentieth century, a nonentity named Shakespeare rails against poverty, mediocrity, and misunderstanding, in forgotten modernist Philip Owens’s brilliant, one-of-a-kind satire.


Every year, there’s a new crop of sad, dirty poet boys coming up to the city without a penny to their names. In six months’ time, who on earth will remember these nobodies, with their so-called blank verse and their extravagant plots—this Marlowe, Kyd, and Will “Shakespere”? (A pseudonym, surely!)Better that they write thrillers, or advertising copy, or speeches for the media baron John Falstaff, who looks to be running for office. Now there’s a man with a strong hand, who’ll keep us out of any nasty foreign wars!


Published in 1936 and soon forgotten in the chaos of World War II, Picture of Nobody is one of the strangest, most accomplished, and most remarkable one-offs in English fiction. A comic yet credible reimagining of the milieu of Elizabethan London in modernist dress, it transcends its premise to provide a poignant portrait, of a Shakespearean mind coming to grips with the twentieth century. Populated by an assortment of characters familiar from Will’s life and writing both, it is as much a loving parody as a grim prophecy regarding the fate of genius in “interesting times.”

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Philip Owens (b. 1901) was an English poet, novelist, translator and editor, who formed part of the literary avante-garde in the ninteen-twenties and thirties. He appears in the 1930 anthology European Caravan, edited by Samuel Putnam, which also introduced much of the world to Jacob Bronowski, William Empson, and Samuel Beckett. He was a frequent contributor to Jack Lindsay's literary journal, The London Aphrodite. He is also the author of a novel, Hobohemians, and the editor of Bed and Sometimes Breakfast: An Anthology of Landladies.

Owens translated Hans Fallada's novels Wolf Among Wolves (1937) and Iron Gustav (1938) into English for Putnam.

He was killed in June 1945 while serving in the Intelligence Corps during the Greek Civil War.

Reviews

[Sophia Eck · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satirical take on the precocious attitudes of Shakespearean artists but amid the 20th century, Pictures of Nobody really suffers from its own specificity and narrow gaze. Feeling more like an “office comedy” than anything an actual Shakespeare fan would enjoy, the narrative focuses more on male bickering and relationship infidelity than any actual semblance of artistic expression or passion.

Our “Shakespere”, misspelled for satire’s sake, truly provides zero charm, zero development, zero intrigue. Almost all of the characters are men, and they all have the same pompous personality like anyone can imagine of men in any conceivably bland office, and the basically two women included are provided simply as shallow narrative elements for the men. Now, a man would probably claim that since this is satire, all of these things are purposeful, and to that I say: satire is supposed to be at least somewhat enjoyable, and are generally considered to be something smart. There were a handful of lines clever enough to be found in one of the better Kingsley Amis novels, but aside from that this book felt like quicksand, and the further I sank, the more everything just looked beige and felt grating. A book for men.

[Jess Esa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shakespeare and Greek retellings and alternative universe books are so common now that I'm always excited when I find one that existed before this publishing trend. They always seem to do something different and interesting, and Picture of Nobody, originally published in 1936, definitely does that. This edition also has a wonderful foreword by Allen Bratton, the author of Henry Henry, one of the most interesting modern Shakespeare retellings, which is quite a treat.

This book above all is a meditation on the artist and poverty, and asks the question of whether Shakespeare had existed in pre-World War II Europe, would he have found any of the success he's known for? We see Shakespeare suffer through the indignities of barely making ends meet over and over, trying to get his work seen by the right people, managing the esteem of wealthy patrons (including the insufferable Elizabeth Tidder, our contemporary Elizabeth 1), before the economic crash hits and he loses everything again. Anne's pregnancy is met with despair because there's no money. This is a landscape where Falstaff, always on the lookout to reinvent himself and make a quick buck, succeeds, and anyone trying to maintain artistic integrity inevitably fails.

"This is what came of poverty, having not even enough to take the most necessary of precautions."

Of course, the realities of poverty existed in Shakespeare's own time, and the story is just as relatable for artists working right now; in fact, it's so relatable that it's hard to believe it was written almost a hundred years ago. Poverty is the problem. This hits harder with the looming dread of the war creeping in towards the end, off- handed comments, where we, the reader, know exactly where it's heading. The ending is explosive, harrowing, and futile. It's hard not to feel the current environment in these last chapters.

Overall, this was a witty and interesting book that raises a lot of questions. My main gripe was that, especially for the first three-quarters, it didn't feel like this needed to be a book about Shakespeare. Other than the fact that this is a man who would have made it in another time. It's a modern world where Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and characters exist, but I couldn't help but think this story would hit just as hard (maybe harder?) If it were just the story of an ordinary struggling poet. Or perhaps it's that the concept and the story didn't quite mesh well enough for me.

Either way, it's a great book, and if you love sad, modernist literature and Shakespeare, it should definitely be on your radar!