A Bit Off the Map, and Other Stories is a 1957 collection of eight short stories written by Angus Wilson.
A Bit Off the Map, and Other Stories is a 1957 collection of eight short stories written by Angus Wilson.
The book is Wilson's third collection of short stories. [1] It takes its title from the first story included in the collection. [2]
The stories in A Bit Off the Map include "A Flat Country Christmas", "Once A Lady", and "More Friend Than Lodger". Wilson reveals the motives behind the pompous behaviour of his characters. The stories intersperse the ironic, as a way of deflating the premises of the facades the characters have erected. [3]
Marina MacKay, of Washington University in St. Louis, says the characters in the collection, "are struggling to find their place on England's post-war map." She takes particular note of Kennie, the hero of "A Bit Off the Map." She calls him "a mentally subnormal Teddy boy who drifts around cafes, infatuated with an untalented, artistic crowd." [1]
Critical reception of the story was generally quite positive. Reviewing the collection in the year of its release, Time magazine called it "brilliantly readable", and noted that "there is no denying the sneering precision of his observations." [4]
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes. Some of his works were set in post-apocalyptic landscapes. His best known works include The Day of the Triffids (1951), filmed in 1962, and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), filmed in 1960 as Village of the Damned and again in 1995 under the same title. In 2022 the book was adapted for a seven episode series for Sky Max under its original title.
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, he wrote in both French and English. During the Second World War, Beckett was a member of the French Resistance group Gloria SMH.
Charles Samuel Addams was an American artist and cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters. He signed his cartoons under the pen name Chas Addams. Some of the recurring characters, who became known as the Addams Family, have been the basis for spin-offs in several other forms of media.
Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot and later received a knighthood for his services to literature.
Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian science fiction author. He has won a number of awards for his hard science fiction and humorous stories, including the Hugo Award 1977 and 1983, and another Hugo with his co-author and wife Jeanne Robinson in 1978.
John Dann MacDonald was an American writer of novels and short stories. He is known for his thrillers.
Funny Face is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and written by Leonard Gershe, containing assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Although having the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical Funny Face by the Gershwin brothers, and featuring the same male star, the plot is completely different and only four of the songs from the stage musical are included. Alongside Astaire, the film stars Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson.
Alberto Moravia was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia is best known for his debut novel Gli indifferenti (1929) and for the anti-fascist novel Il Conformista, the basis for the film The Conformist (1970) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Other novels of his adapted for the cinema are Agostino, filmed with the same title by Mauro Bolognini in 1962; Il disprezzo, filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Le Mépris ; La Noia (Boredom), filmed with that title by Damiano Damiani in 1963 and released in the US as The Empty Canvas in 1964 and La ciociara, filmed by Vittorio De Sica as Two Women (1960). Cédric Kahn's L'Ennui (1998) is another version of La Noia.
Frank Thomas Moorhouse was an Australian writer. He won major Australian national prizes for the short story, the novel, the essay, and for script writing. His work has been published in the United Kingdom, France, and the United States and also translated into German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Serbian, and Swedish.
Towards Zero is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in June 1944, and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in July of the same year. The first US edition of the novel retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6).
Men Without Women (1927) is the second collection of short stories written by American author Ernest Hemingway. The volume consists of 14 stories, 10 of which had been previously published in magazines. It was published in October 1927, with a first print-run of approximately 7600 copies at $2.
The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Distribution. The 18th Disney animated feature film, it is based on the novel of the same name by T. H. White, first published in 1938 and then revised and republished in 1958 as the first book of White's Arthurian tetralogy The Once and Future King. Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, the film features the voices of Rickie Sorensen, Karl Swenson, Junius Matthews, Sebastian Cabot, Norman Alden, and Martha Wentworth. It was the last animated film from Walt Disney Productions to be released in Walt Disney's lifetime.
"Love & Monsters" is the tenth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 17 June 2006. It was written by executive producer and lead writer Russell T Davies and directed by Dan Zeff.
Spirits of the Dead is a 1968 'omnibus' film comprising three segments. The French title Histoires extraordinaires is from the first collection of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories translated by French poet Charles Baudelaire; the English title Spirits of the Dead is from an 1827 poem by Poe.
Richard Wilson was an American science fiction writer and fan. He was a member of the Futurians, and was married for a time to Leslie Perri, who had also been a Futurian.
Off the map may refer to:
Transylvania Twist is a 1989 comedy film that parodies horror films. Originally released by Concord Production Inc., this film is distributed on home video by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the film Angus Scrimm reprises his role of the "Tall Man" from the Phantasm films, as a parody. The humor of the film is most often said to be in the style of Airplane!, and Mel Brooks comedies. It occasionally breaks the fourth wall rule with characters looking at the camera, and one even saying "I'm in the wrong movie". The film's main theme has been released on a variety of albums, it and the entire soundtrack was released on CD and as a direct download in the year 2010, twenty-one years after the movies initial release.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a Christmas children's story by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It follows the Grinch, a grouchy, solitary creature who tries to cancel Christmas by stealing Christmas gifts and decorations from the homes of the nearby town of Whoville on Christmas Eve. Miraculously, the Grinch realizes that Christmas is not all about money and presents.
Declaration is a 1957 anthology of essays by British writers. It was edited by Tom Maschler and published by MacGibbon & Kee. It features short essays by Doris Lessing, Colin Wilson, John Osborne, John Wain, Kenneth Tynan, Bill Hopkins, Lindsay Anderson and Stuart Holroyd. The book is closely associated with the angry young men movement, and the essays are presented as "credos" or manifesto of the writers.
Life Is Strange: True Colors is a graphic adventure video game developed by Deck Nine and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. It was released on 10 September 2021 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Stadia and was released for the Nintendo Switch on 7 December 2021. The plot focuses on Alex Chen, a young woman who can experience the emotions of others, as she tries to solve the mystery behind a tragedy that happened in her life.
 | This article about a collection of short stories published in the 1950s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |