The Humble Lover

(Paperback)

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Description

A wildly hilarious and irreverent novel about a rich octogenarian and the young ballerino he covetsEdmund White at his funniest and most unrestrained.

Aldwych West, an eighty-year-old modern-day aristocrat living alone in his Manhattan townhouse, is used to having what he wants. And when he sets eyes on August Dupond, a strong, stunningly beautiful soloist in the New York City Ballet, he decides he must have him. Soon they strike up a closeness that falls between the blurry lines of friendship, sponsorship, and love, and August moves in with Aldwych. But eventually August starts bringing home other men, and a formidable woman in Aldwych's circle named Ernestine also takes a deep interest in the young, enchanting star. Messy entanglements and fierce rivalries ensue, and the result is an unforgettable, outrageous tragicomedy that explores the many layers of love and sexual desire as only Edmund White can.

Reviews

White continues his legacy as a pioneer of queer literature with this mesmerizingly erotic tragicomedy. * Buzzfeed *
The work of Edmund White stands as an unignorable achievement in the past half century of American literature. It is astonishing to see him, in his ninth decade, after more than a dozen novels, writing with such daring and abandon, with the true artist's bracing, vivifying disregard for the stifling canons of good taste. He is one of our living treasures, an inspiration, and a wonder. * Garth Greenwell, author of CLEANNESS and WHAT BELONGS TO YOU *
Love may be universal, but no one writes about love quite like Edmund White. The veteran author returns with an outrageous, tender novel that complicates contemporary ideas of what traditional, appropriate desires and relationships look like . . . this novel is as mischievous as it is thought-provoking. It is Edmund White at his very best. * BookPage, Starred Review *
Studded with endless witticisms and brilliant social comedy, this book is likely the most clever and creative pornographic novel ever written by an octogenarian . . . Everything you love about White, explicit sex, French champagne, and insouciant murder included. * Kirkus Reviews *
Hot, sexual, desirous, and disastrously doomed . . . there is a cinematic plot, a narrative arc, and a scandalous conclusion driving this showstopper, but White's uniquely freaky unrestrained creativity is the main reason to buy a front row seat. * Bay Area Reporter *

Author Bio

Edmund White is the author of many novels, including A Boys Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, The Farewell Symphony, and A Previous Life. His nonfiction includes City Boy, Inside a Pearl, The Unpunished Vice, and other memoirs; The Flneur, about Paris; and literary biographies and essays. He was named the 2018 winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction and received the 2019 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. He lives in New York.