Misfortune (novel)

Last updated
Misfortune

Misfortune (Wesley Stace novel).jpg

Book Cover
Author Wesley Stace
Country United States
Language English
Genre Novel
Publication date
2005
Media type Print (Paperback)

Misfortune, is the 2005 debut novel by Wesley Stace. The "Victorian" novel revolves around a cross-dressing heir/heiress. [1] The book was one of the Washington Post's Books of the Year and chosen by Amazon.com as one of the Ten Best Novels of 2005. It was also nominated for the Guardian First Book Award, and shortlisted for both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. The author, better known as singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, recorded the traditional ballads and folk songs in the book on The Love Hall Tryst's 2005 album Songs of Misfortune. [2]

Debut novel first published by an author

A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future. First-time novelists without a previous published reputation, such as publication in nonfiction, magazines, or literary journals, typically struggle to find a publisher.

The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by The Guardian newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspaper had sponsored from 1965. The Guardian First Book Award was discontinued in 2016, with the 2015 awards being the last.

John Wesley Harding (singer) British singer-songwriter and author

Wesley Stace is a folk/pop singer-songwriter and author who has used the stage name John Wesley Harding. Under his legal name, he has written four novels. He is also a university teacher and the curator of Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders.

Related Research Articles

Iain Banks Scottish writer

Iain Banks was a Scottish author. He wrote mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies.

Stephen King American author

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies, many of which have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, television series, and comic books. King has published 58 novels and six non-fiction books. He has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in book collections.

Jonathan Coe English novelist

Jonathan Coe is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name. It is set within the "carve up" of the UK's resources which some feel was carried out by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative governments of the 1980s. One claim to fame that Coe has is writing the longest sentence in the literature of the English language, one that appeared in The Rotters' Club and appears to hold the record at 13,955 words.

Kazuo Ishiguro British author

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, is an English novelist, screenwriter, and short-story writer. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, but his family moved to the UK in 1960 when he was five. Ishiguro graduated from the University of Kent with a bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy in 1978 and gained his master's from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course in 1980.

Nick Hornby English novelist

Nicholas Peter John Hornby is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir Fever Pitch and novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Hornby was named the 29th most influential person in British culture.

<i>Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth</i> Comics

Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Chris Ware. Pantheon Books released the book in 2000 following its serialization in the newspaper Newcity and Ware's Acme Novelty Library series.

<i>The Bad Beginning</i> book

The Bad Beginning is the first novel of the children's novel series A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The novel tells the story of three children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who become orphans following a fire and are sent to live with Count Olaf, who attempts to steal their inheritance.

Sebastian Faulks British journalist and novelist

Sebastian Charles Faulks, is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray. He has also published novels with a contemporary setting, most recently A Week in December (2009) and Paris Echo, (2018) and a James Bond continuation novel, Devil May Care (2008), as well as a continuation of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves series, Jeeves and the Wedding Bells (2013). He was a team captain on BBC Radio 4 literary quiz The Write Stuff.

Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of English-language fiction, including his 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White.

Sonya Louise Hartnett is an Australian author of fiction for adults, young adults, and children. She has been called "the finest Australian writer of her generation". For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" Hartnett won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2008, the biggest prize in children's literature.

David Almond British childrens writer

David Almond FRSL is a British author who has written several novels for children and young adults from 1998, each one receiving critical acclaim.

Per Petterson Norwegian novelist

Per Petterson is a Norwegian novelist. His debut book was Aske i munnen, sand i skoa (1987), a collection of short stories. He has since published a number of novels to good reviews. To Siberia (1996), set in the Second World War, was published in English in 1998 and nominated for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize. I kjølvannet, translated as In the Wake (2002), is a young man's story of losing his family in the Scandinavian Star ferry disaster in 1990 ; it won the Brage Prize for 2000. His 2008 novel Jeg forbanner tidens elv won The Nordic Council's Literature Prize for 2009, with an English translation published in 2010.

Nora OConnor American musician

Nora O’Connor is a Chicago-based musician. Though primarily known for her vocals, O'Connor also plays guitar and bass. For much of 2013, O'Connor toured internationally as a singer in Iron and Wine. She also records and performs with longtime collaborator, Andrew Bird. O'Connor plays bass and sings back-up for Kelly Hogan and in 2010, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy enlisted O'Connor and Hogan as primary vocalists on gospel legend Mavis Staples’ Grammy Award-winning album You Are Not Alone. In the studio and on the stage, O'Connor has backed Neko Case, Jakob Dylan, The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, Archer Prewitt, John Wesley Harding, Hushdrops, Justin Roberts and Robbie Fulks.

Canongate Books is a Scottish independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh; it is named for the Canongate, an area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner Life of Pi. Canongate was named Publisher of the Year in 2003 and 2009.

<i>The Secret River</i> book by Kate Grenville

The Secret River, written by Kate Grenville in 2005, is a historical novel about an early 19th-century Englishman transported to Australia for theft. The story explores what might have happened when Europeans colonised land already inhabited by Aboriginal people. The book has been compared to Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and to Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang for its style and historical theme.

<i>Sixty Lights</i> book by Gail Jones

Sixty Lights is a 2004 novel by Australian author Gail Jones.

Vijay Singh is a historian, writer and filmmaker based in France.

Misfortune or Misfortunes may refer to:

References

  1. Helen Davies Gender and Ventriloquism in Victorian and Neo-Victorian ... - 2012 -- Page 167 "my Afterword offers readings of two novels by Wesley Stace: Misfortune (2005) and By George (2007)."
  2. Wesley Stace - Misfortune "The L.A. Times praised his latest novel, Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer, but for my money, his first novel, Misfortune, is his enduring page-turner. The Guardian called it a "rationalist, secular study of sexual politics, of the glory and the grief of enforced transvestism."(Claudia Marshall)