Brideshead Abbreviated: The Digested Read of the Twentieth Century

The New York Times called the Guardian's Digested Read column "the best book-related feature in any of this planet's English-language newspapers." Now creator John Crace takes on 100 great—and not so great—classics of modern literature. John Crace's Digested Read column has rightly acquired a cult following. Each week fans avidly devour his latest razor-sharp literary assassination, while authors turn tremblingly to the appropriate page of the review section, fearful that it may be their turn to be mercilessly sent up. Now he turns his critical eye on the classics of the last century, offering bite-sized pastiches of everything from Mrs. Dalloway to Trainspotting, Lolita to Blood Meridian. Those who have never quite got around to reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man will be delighted to find its essence distilled into a handful of paragraphs, while those who have never really enjoyed Lord of the Flies will be pleased to find it hilariously parodied in an easily swallowable 982 words. And those who find all such works a little highbrow will be relieved to discover, between the covers of this book, John Crace's take on the likes of Ian Fleming, P. G. Wodehouse, and Douglas Copeland. Witty and sharp, this is essential reading both for those who genuinely love literature and for those who merely want to appear ridiculously well read.