5.8 /10 1 Votes5.8
Author Publication date 1919 Originally published 1919 Genre Novel | 2.9/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print Playwright Ronald Firbank Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sandy wilson valmouth part one bbc 1975
Valmouth is a 1919 novel by British author Ronald Firbank. Valmouth is an imaginary English spa resort that attracts centenarians owing to its famed pure air. The town's name evokes actual seaside towns in the southwest peninsula of Britain, such as Falmouth, Dartmouth, Teignmouth, Exmouth and Weymouth.
Contents
- Sandy wilson valmouth part one bbc 1975
- Sandy wilson valmouth part two bbc 1975
- Summary
- Main characters
- Musical theatre adaptation
- References
The novel's plot concerns, among other things, the effects of a black woman and her niece moving into a spa resort inhabited by wealthy centenarians. The ironic novel is about eroticism and exoticism in the milieu of quaint but lewd old British ladies at the fictional spa. The novel is noted for its florid and baroque style and parody-like humor, and its sexual innuendos both heterosexual and homosexual. There is also a fanciful brand of Catholicism, a blend of mortification of the flesh, high-flown mysticism, and proselytism.
In 1958, a musical adaptation was made by Sandy Wilson.
Sandy wilson valmouth part two bbc 1975
Summary
Two wealthy elderly Valmouth-area ladies, Mrs Hurstpierpoint and Mrs Thoroughfare, are concerned with the marriage prospects of the latter's son, Captain Dick Thoroughfare. The Captain, away at sea, is rather scandalously engaged to a black girl, Niri-Esther, but he also favours his 'chum', Jack Whorwood.
Thetis Tooke, a local farmer's daughter, is obsessed with Captain Thoroughfare. Meanwhile, the exotic Mrs Yajnavalkya, a black masseuse and chiropodist, attempts to procure a sexual dalliance with Thetis's virile brother David for the centenarian Lady Parvula de Panzoust.
Eventually, Captain Thoroughfare returns to England. It comes to light that he has virtually married Niri-Esther, that they have a baby, and that she is also pregnant with his second child.
Main characters
Musical theatre adaptation
In 1958, a musical of the same name was adapted by Sandy Wilson from this and other Firbank stories. It opened at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, in London. The musical has since been staged several times, and several cast album recordings have been released. The musical has also been performed on BBC radio, first broadcast in 1975.