The Lazy Ones
Albert Cossery author William Goyen translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Publishing:8th Apr '27
£10.99
This title is due to be published on 8th April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
'Cossery elevated idleness to an art form' The Times
Three brothers live with their father, uncle and maid in a dilapidated Cairo suburb, spending as much time as they possibly can doing nothing whatsoever. But Serag, the youngest of the three, has started having crazy ideas that threaten to shatter the household’s torpid equilibrium. He wants to find a job. If only he wasn’t so sleepy.
Written in 1953, in the louche Parisian hotel room Albert Cossery called home for fifty-seven years, The Lazy Ones is a playful celebration of Cossery’s belief in the ultimate dignity of indolence in an alienated society. As he remarked, ‘the more you are idle, the more you have time to reflect. Laziness is a critical position by which to judge the world.’
Above all Cossery, one of the last and quirkiest links to the postwar glory days of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, elevated idleness to an art form. He lived on his royalties and the generosity of his friends, and he liked to show his hands and say: "They have not worked for 2,000 years." * The Times *
ISBN: 9780241822159
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 12mm
Weight: 133g
176 pages