Born in 1928, Thomas Ridley Sharpe was a British novelist, who favoured satire in all his writings. Best known for the Wilt series, and Porterhouse Blue, Thomas Sharpe, better known as Tom Sharpe was an alumnus of Pembroke College, Cambridge. His novels have been well acclaimed globally and the Wilt Series along with a few other books have also been adapted for television.
Wilt is one of the first critically acclaimed novels of Tom Sharpe. Based on the life and misadventures of a professionally underrated assistant lecturer, Henry Wilt, the book is a comedic novel which was first published in 1976. The story starts off with Henry Wilt, who has a daft job and an extremely domineering wife. Wilt has just been passed up for promotion yet again and is shown to be a guy who always takes the easy way out in life. As a result he never gets what he wants. He teaches literature to uninterested construction workers and thugs at a Community College in the South of England.
Frustrated with his job, Wilt finds no respite even at home. With a wife who is physically larger than him, but emotionally and mentally behaves extremely immature, Wilt is desperate to find a way out of his troubles. Even though he cannot do anything about his job, he loves to walk his dog and fantasize about doing something to his wife, Eva. Eva is shown to be massive, with unpredictable fits of over enthusiasm. Wilt is tired of being hen-pecked and harassed all the time by Eva, and starts day dreaming about killing her in gruesome ways.
But, then a string of unfortunate events put Wilt in an unenviable position. These events start at a party hosted by some “horrible Americans”. When his wife runs off with a college professor, Wilt seizes the opportunity of carrying out some of his more vindictive fantasies. He inflates a life size plastic doll and dresses it up in his wife’s clothes. He then proceeds to dump the doll down a 30 foot hole. And by doing something so stupid he has now started a chain of events in which suspicion and blame soon find their way back to him, when his wife goes missing.
What follows is a hilarious tale of confusion and mayhem. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong. And Wilt only makes matters worse when he attempts to make things better. Along the way he is subjected to humiliation and turmoil as his life is turned upside down. But going through the ordeal, somewhere along the way, Wilt finds his strengths and some amount of dignity.
He seems to be assisting the police in finding his wife, but is almost all the time under a cloud of suspicion from the obstinate police inspector Flint. Gradually with all the pressure of the investigation burdening him down, he starts to find his strong suits and begins to flourish. While the police focus solely on the circumstantial evidence they have, Wilt puts in all he has into showing the world how the Law actually works, and how they can’t seem to differentiate a missing person from a hole in the ground.
A satirical and entertaining read overall, in which Tom Sharpe has created a character, which we can all identify with. Maybe we do not recognize Henry Wilt as ourselves, but, we do recognize him as someone we are afraid to turn into. Throughout the story, the reader experiences a sort of empathy for the protagonist.
%2B-%2BComedy%2Bof%2Berrors%2B-%2BAuthored%2Bby%2BTom%2BSharpe.jpg "Wilt (Published in 1976) - Comedy of errors - Authored by Tom Sharpe")
Wilt is one of the first critically acclaimed novels of Tom Sharpe. Based on the life and misadventures of a professionally underrated assistant lecturer, Henry Wilt, the book is a comedic novel which was first published in 1976. The story starts off with Henry Wilt, who has a daft job and an extremely domineering wife. Wilt has just been passed up for promotion yet again and is shown to be a guy who always takes the easy way out in life. As a result he never gets what he wants. He teaches literature to uninterested construction workers and thugs at a Community College in the South of England.
Frustrated with his job, Wilt finds no respite even at home. With a wife who is physically larger than him, but emotionally and mentally behaves extremely immature, Wilt is desperate to find a way out of his troubles. Even though he cannot do anything about his job, he loves to walk his dog and fantasize about doing something to his wife, Eva. Eva is shown to be massive, with unpredictable fits of over enthusiasm. Wilt is tired of being hen-pecked and harassed all the time by Eva, and starts day dreaming about killing her in gruesome ways.
But, then a string of unfortunate events put Wilt in an unenviable position. These events start at a party hosted by some “horrible Americans”. When his wife runs off with a college professor, Wilt seizes the opportunity of carrying out some of his more vindictive fantasies. He inflates a life size plastic doll and dresses it up in his wife’s clothes. He then proceeds to dump the doll down a 30 foot hole. And by doing something so stupid he has now started a chain of events in which suspicion and blame soon find their way back to him, when his wife goes missing.
What follows is a hilarious tale of confusion and mayhem. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong. And Wilt only makes matters worse when he attempts to make things better. Along the way he is subjected to humiliation and turmoil as his life is turned upside down. But going through the ordeal, somewhere along the way, Wilt finds his strengths and some amount of dignity.
He seems to be assisting the police in finding his wife, but is almost all the time under a cloud of suspicion from the obstinate police inspector Flint. Gradually with all the pressure of the investigation burdening him down, he starts to find his strong suits and begins to flourish. While the police focus solely on the circumstantial evidence they have, Wilt puts in all he has into showing the world how the Law actually works, and how they can’t seem to differentiate a missing person from a hole in the ground.
A satirical and entertaining read overall, in which Tom Sharpe has created a character, which we can all identify with. Maybe we do not recognize Henry Wilt as ourselves, but, we do recognize him as someone we are afraid to turn into. Throughout the story, the reader experiences a sort of empathy for the protagonist.
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