The Apes of God by Wyndham Lewis
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Overview: Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957) was a novelist, painter, essayist, polemicist and one of the dynamic forces of the early 20th century and a central figure in the history of modernism. He was the founder of Vorticism, the only original movement in 20th century English painting. His Vorticist paintings from 1913 are the first abstract works produced in England, and influenced the development of Suprematism in Russia. Tarr (published in 1918), initiated his career as a satirical novelist, earning the praise of his contemporaries: “the most distinguished living novelist” (T.S. Eliot), “the only English writer who can be compared to Dostoevsky” (Ezra Pound).
The Apes of God (1930) is a satire of London’s contemporary literary and artistic scene. Tutored by a 60-year-old Albino dilettante, young simpleton Dan Boleyn travels through the London art world. He is horrified, confused and bored by the contrived “broadcasts” of the “apes”, a series of pseudo artists who resemble, on the one hand, absurd mechanical dolls, and on the other, specific personages of the era. Lewis’s “enemies”, such as his patron Sidney Schiff (and his wife), Edward Wadsworth (a fellow Vorticist) and John Rodker, along with members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Lytton Strachey, are clearly recognisable under fictional names and are treated with savage humour. The penultimate and longest chapter, ‘Lord Osmund’s Lenten Party’ (over 250 pages), is a satirical account of a fancy-dress party held by three members of the ‘Finnian Shaw’ family, who are clearly modeled on the Sitwell family, Osbert, Edith and Sacheverell.
This ebook is based on the 1981 Black Sparrow Press edition with an Afterword by Lewis scholar Paul Edwards.
Genre: Fiction > General Fiction/Classics
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