Gentleman from Parnassus

Gentleman from Parnassus
Publisher	Woodford Press
Released	1936, 1951
Pages	244
ASIN	B000YCS358

Gentleman from Parnassus by Jack Woodford. Godwin (1936), 283 pp.

Sir Arthur Hanon, cloistered on his English country estate, writes pretentious novels under the pseudonym "Arthur Hammond." He's only in his early thirties but feels his life is wasting away. In Hollywood, meanwhile, a writer whose name really is Arthur Hammond has created a successful screenwriting career by pretending to be the English novelist. Hanon decides to go to Los Angeles, not to expose his pseudonymic namesake but to use him to provide an entry into the excitement of movieland.

In this usually sunny satire Woodford goes after both the stuffiness of the English and the phoniness of Hollywood. Hanon is absurdly proper and honorable and is determined to do the right thing even when no one expects him to. The Hollywood he discovers is disingenuousness personified. Everyone is on one publicity campaign or another. No one cares much who he or she really is. (For actresses Lesbian chic is currently in vogue.) Hammond has moved beyond cynicism to disgust, but he's not ready to give up the big house, ready cash and beautiful girlfriend. Woodford saves his most vehement attack for the American literary establishment, which he finds has embraced specious artsiness and sold out to commercial interests. The book's main problem is that it has too much talk and too little action. After the premise is set up, very little happens. Even so, the book reads well enough and is fun in a familiar sort of way.

See also [ Jack Woodford ]

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