The English Understand Wool (Storybook ND Series)

By: Helen DeWitt

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Hardcover | 27 September 2022 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
64 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23 x 15.5 x 2

Hardcover

RRP $31.95

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Maman was exigeante-there is no English word?and I had the benefit of her training. Others may not be so fortunate. If some other young girl, with two million dollars at stake, finds this of use I shall count myself justified.

Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge's, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite, so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests. One should cultivate weavers of tweed in the Outer Hebrides but have the cloth made up in London; one should buy linen in Ireland but have it made up by a Thai seamstress in Paris (whose genius has been supported by purchase of suitable premises). All this and much more she has learned, governed by a parent of ferociously lofty standards. But at 17, during the annual Ramadan travels, she finds all assumptions overturned. Will she be able to fend for herself? Will the dictates of good taste suffice when she must deal, singlehanded, with the sharks of New York?

Industry Reviews

"A staggeringly intelligent examination into the nature of truth, love, respect, beauty and trust...This is that rare thing, or merle blanc, as maman might say: a perfect book. I've read it four times, which you can do between breakfast and lunch." -- Nicola Shulman - The Times Literary Supplement
"Weighing in at just 64 pages, Helen DeWitt's The English Understand Wool is a delight." -- Mia Levitin - The Irish Times
"This is a short, sharp sliver of a story-only 64 pages-but every single word is pitch perfect... Think of it as the literary equivalent of a shot of ice-cold vodka-Belvedere or Grey Goose only, of course." -- Lucy Scholes - Prospect
"For a wonderfully sideways take on the complex intersections between class, wealth and power-intersections that invariably favour those who have most of them already-I recommend reading The English Understand Wool, by the American writer Helen DeWitt." -- Alex Clark - The Observer
"The English Understand Wool is Helen DeWitt's best and funniest book so far - quite a feat given the standards set by the rest of her work... Its pages are rife with wicked pleasures. It incites and rewards re-reading." -- Heather Cass White - The Times Literary Supplement
"Readers of Helen DeWitt's limited previous output-two novels and a collection of stories in twenty-two years-will fall greedily on anything new. Her novella The English Understand Wool exceeds expectations." -- John Self - The Critic

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