 First edition cover | |
| Author | Boris Johnson |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Political satire |
| Set in | London |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | September 2004 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print: Hardback octavo |
| Pages | 326 |
| ISBN | 9780007195909 |
| OCLC | 056649301 |
| 823.92 | |
Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors is a 2004 novel by Boris Johnson. [1] It received mixed reviews on original release.
"To a man like Roger Barlow, the whole world just seemed to be a complicated joke ... everything was always up for grabs, capable of dispute; and religion, laws, principle, custom – these were nothing but sticks from the wayside to support our faltering steps."
Seventy-Two Virgins: A Comedy of Errors
The President of the United States plans to visit the Palace of Westminster. A Lebanese-born terrorist aims to assassinate him; Roger Barlow, a hapless, bicycle-riding, tousled-haired MP aims to foil the attack in order to distract from a scandal involving his financial entanglement in a lingerie shop named Eulalie.
Seventy-Two Virgins received mixed reviews on original release. David Smith, writing for The Observer , said "despite the pacy narration, there is a sense of going nowhere fast", but praised the humour, saying "Yet while Johnson is a heroic failure as a novelist, he scores in his comic handling of those most sensitive issues: the ideological motives of Muslim suicide bombers (whence the title) and the mixed blessings of the American empire. The playing of these as pantomime risks causing offence, but, as in person, Johnson succeeds in being charming and sincere." [2]
The Spectator (which Johnson was editing at the time) gave it a positive review, Douglas Hurd comparing it to P. G. Wodehouse (the plot device of a character being threatened by potential scandal regarding his involvement in a lingerie business named 'Eulalie' is lifted directly from Wodehouse's The Code of the Woosters ) and praising the "rollicking pace and continuous outpouring of comic invention"; however, he also said that it read like it had been written in three days. (Hurd also accurately described Johnson as "the next prime minister but three".) [3]
In the Literary Review, Philip Oakes said that the "Thrills [were] muffled by relentless jokiness and inordinate length of book." [4]
Attention was refocused on Seventy-Two Virgins in 2019, with Johnson poised to win the Conservative Party leadership election and become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. [5] In The Guardian , Mark Lawson noted that "it's striking that Barlow's view – that public value should make private conduct irrelevant – is one the writer has continued to embrace through domestic troubles." He noted the anti-French and anti-American tone, and pointed out the use of offensive language: "references to 'Islamic headcases' and 'Islamic nutcases'. Arabs are casually noted to have 'hook noses' and 'slanty eyes'; a mixed-race Briton is called 'coffee-coloured'; and there are mentions of 'pikeys' and people who are 'half-caste'." [6] Sexist content was also noted. More sinister was that "the suggestion – from both an external observer, and the protagonist's inner voice – that Barlow [the author surrogate ] may be a fraud. His assistant worries that, under the jaunty vaudeville act, there are no real core ideals, values or beliefs." [6] The novel was also criticised for depicting Jews as "controlling the media" and being able to "fiddle" elections, an evidently antisemitic trope. [7] During the 2019 general election campaign, Catherine Bennett similarly argued that the novel "amounts to a compelling case for character reappraisal" and that its perceived tendency to evaluate women's worth "according to their fuckability on the – sometimes eccentric – Johnson scale" indicates a lack of "interest in addressing, for instance, sex discrimination, harassment, [or] the gender pay gap". [8]
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeves; the immaculate and loquacious Psmith; Lord Emsworth and the Blandings Castle set; the Oldest Member, with stories about golf; and Mr. Mulliner, with tall tales on subjects ranging from bibulous bishops to megalomaniac movie moguls.
The Spectator is a weekly British news magazine focusing on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. The Spectator is politically conservative, and its principal subject areas are politics and culture. Alongside columns and features on current affairs, the magazine also contains arts pages on books, music, opera, film, and TV reviews. It had an average circulation of just under 98,000 as of 2023, excluding Australia.
Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, often known as Spode or Lord Sidcup, is a recurring fictional character in the Jeeves novels of English comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. In the first novel in which he appears, he is an "amateur dictator" and the leader of a fictional fascist group in London called the Saviours of Britain, also known as the Black Shorts. He leaves the group after he inherits his title.
Stanley Patrick Johnson is a British-French author and former politician who was Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wight and Hampshire East from 1979 to 1984. A former employee of the World Bank and the European Commission, he has written books on environmental and population issues. His six children include Boris Johnson, who was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Leave It to Psmith is a comic novel by English author P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 30 November 1923 by Herbert Jenkins, London, England, and in the United States on 14 March 1924 by George H. Doran, New York. It had previously been serialised, in the Saturday Evening Post in the US between 3 February and 24 March 1923, and in the Grand Magazine in the UK between April and December that year; the ending of this magazine version was rewritten for the book form.
Dominic Ralph Campden Lawson is a British journalist.
The Code of the Woosters is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on 7 October 1938, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York. It was previously serialised in The Saturday Evening Post (US) from 16 July to 3 September 1938, illustrated by Wallace Morgan, and in the London Daily Mail from 14 September to 6 October 1938.
Uneasy Money is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 17 March 1916 by D. Appleton & Company, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 4 October 1917 by Methuen & Co., London. The story had earlier been serialised in the U.S in the Saturday Evening Post from December 1915, and in the UK in the Strand Magazine starting December 1916.
The Small Bachelor is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 28 April 1927 by Methuen & Co., London, and in the United States on 17 June 1927 by George H. Doran, New York.
Hot Water is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published on August 17, 1932, in the United Kingdom by Herbert Jenkins, London, and on the same date in the United States by Doubleday, Doran, New York.
The Luck Stone is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, written under the pseudonym Basil Windham. It was compiled from a serial which appeared in Chums: An Illustrated Paper for Boys between 16 September 1908 and 20 January 1909, when Wodehouse was 27 years old.
If I Were You is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 3 September 1931 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, and in the United Kingdom on 25 September 1931 by Herbert Jenkins, London.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.
"Eulalie" is an 1845 poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
"Mixed Signals" is a song recorded by English singer Robbie Williams for his eleventh studio album, The Heavy Entertainment Show (2016). It was written by the members of the American band The Killers and was produced by Stuart Price. Influenced by 1980s music, "Mixed Signals" is a pop rock and soft rock song accompanied with synthesizers usually present in tracks from the 2000s. It received generally favourable reviews from music critics, who highlighted the song on the album and compared it to the previous works by The Killers. Robbie's girlfriend is played by Top London Model, Kirsty Rose Heslewood.
"Jeeves Saves the Cow-Creamer" is the first episode of the second series of the 1990s British comedy television series Jeeves and Wooster. It is also called "The Silver Jug". It first aired in the UK on 14 April 1991 on ITV. Filming took place at Highclere Castle which was the principal location for Totleigh Towers.
"The Bassetts' Fancy Dress Ball" is the second episode of the second series of the 1990s British comedy television series Jeeves and Wooster. It is also called "A Plan for Gussie". It first aired in the UK on 21 April 1991 on ITV.
John Bew is Professor in History and Foreign Policy at King's College London and from 2013 to 2014 held the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the John W. Kluge Center.
The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History is a book by Boris Johnson, in which he details the life of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. It was originally published on 23 October 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton.
The public image of Boris Johnson has attracted commentary throughout his political career. As Mayor of London, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and in various ministerial positions, Johnson has been considered a controversial or polarising figure in British politics.
