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The Merciful Women book cover
The Merciful Women
1998
First Published
3.56
Average Rating
187
Number of Pages
The second novel from the best-selling Argentine author of The Anatomist, The Merciful Women is a brilliant retelling of the birth of the Gothic novel. In the summer of 1816, Percy and Mary Shelley, Mary's sister, and Lord Byron hid themselves away in a Swiss villa, whiling away rainy afternoons with the Gothic novel contest that would produce Frankenstein. Andahazi's reimagining focuses on the fifth competitor: John Polidori, Byron's manservant, a talentless hack resentful of the ease of his master's life. Through a Faustian pact with an unseen intercessant, Polidori obtains the most compelling vampire story ever written. But "The Vampyre" has striking similarities to Polidori's benefactor and to what she asks of him in return. Opium, erotica, and decadence meld into a sly and stylish novel about literary ambition, talent, and inspiration. "A hoot ... a Voltaire-like skewering of the myth of genius. Andahazi can remind you of vintage Terry Southern." — Richard Wallace, The Seattle Times "Playful, satiric, erotic, sometimes savage, sometimes slapstick ... something completely different, and well worth reading. — San Francisco Chronicle "As a piece of mock-scholarly, wickedly ironic entertainment, it is an utter delight." — Publishers Weekly "This literary tour de force cum vampire tale will leave the reader gasping-from laughter and horror by turns." — The Baltimore Sun
Avg Rating
3.56
Number of Ratings
788
5 STARS
23%
4 STARS
30%
3 STARS
30%
2 STARS
12%
1 STARS
4%
goodreads

Author

Federico Andahazi
Federico Andahazi
Author · 8 books

Federico Andahazi is the son of Bela Andahazi, Hungarian poet and psychoanalyst, and Juana Merlín. During his adolescence, he began to read the classical Argentine and universal authors. He used to escape from school, that reflected the oppressive military dictatorship ruler, to meet with friends in bookstores and bars on Corrientes Avenue, emblematic place of Buenos Aires culture. It was at this time when he began writing his first stories. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Psychology (Universidad de Buenos Aires); he practiced the psychoanalysis a few years, while he was working on his short stories. In 2008, Andahazi published his first book of nonfiction, Pecar como Dios manda, Sexual History of Argentines. The essay runs in an hypothesis through all his work: you cannot understand the history of a country if you don’t know the history of sex that gestured it. With a prose that does not forget the novelist, the author conducted this first volume in an exhaustive investigation that starts from the original cultures and reaches the May Revolution. Federico Andahazi currently is working on the following volumes of the sexual history of the Argentines and in various fiction projects. His work has the recognition of the critical all over the world. His books are the subject of many reviews and studies.

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