VINEGAR GIRL
by Tyler, Anne
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0451498089
- ISBN 13
- 9780451498083
- Seller
-
Fernandina Beach, Florida, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Reviews
"She had always been such a handful – a thorny child, a sullen teenager, a failure as a college student. What was to be done with her? But now they had the answer: marry her off. They would never give her another moment's thought"
Vinegar Girl is the twenty-first novel by American author, Anne Tyler, and is written under the Hogarth Shakespeare banner. It is billed as William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew retold. At twenty-nine, Kate Battista is in a dead-end job she doesn't particularly like, and saddled with looking after her air-head fifteen-year-old sister and her workaholic father. Kate is no shrinking violet though: she lets them know what irritates her in no uncertain terms. Her boss suggests she practice restraint but: "The unsatisfying thing about practicing restraint was that nobody knew you were practicing it"
So when Dr Louis Battista suggests she marry Pyotr Shcherbakov, his brilliant research assistant, whose O-1 visa is about to run out, she lets her father know how she feels: "We are not in another culture, and this is not an arranged marriage. This is human trafficking….You're sending me to live with a stranger, sleep with a stranger, just for your own personal gain"
Pyotr tries to court Kate, despite her irritability, her rudeness and her flat refusal to help. And despite the gross insult she perceives at the suggestion, his enthusiasm, his lack of guile and his straight talking begins to weaken her resolve "…they say you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" she tells him. "Yes, they would," Pyotr said, mysteriously. "But why would you want to catch flies, hah? Answer me that, vinegar girl"
Anne Tyler's version of this classic Shakespeare tale is an absolute delight. Her characters are ordinary people with flaws and believable quirks; their dialogue is just as ordinary and everyday; and yet, they are endearing, each in their own way. Her descriptive prose is marvellous: "an unhealthy-looking young man with patchy beige chin whiskers that reminded Kate of lichen". And the tale is filled with humour: the reader will find themselves smiling, chuckling and (at least at the wedding ceremony) laughing out loud. Witty and funny.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Revere Books, ABAA & IOBA (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 11111610
- Title
- VINEGAR GIRL
- Author
- Tyler, Anne
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Edition
- First Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0451498089
- ISBN 13
- 9780451498083
- Publisher
- Hogarth
- Place of Publication
- NY & London
- Date Published
- 2016
- Keywords
- Hogarth Shakespeare Series
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall
Terms of Sale
Revere Books, ABAA & IOBA
A purchase may be returned for any reason within two weeks of receipt for a full refund of the purchase price, less shipping, with prior notice. Shipping in US is by either USPS priority or media mail at buyer's option.. Books shipped to a FL address are subject to the FL sales tax. VAT and other international shipping fees are the responsibility of the buyer. N.B. International customers: responsibility for orders that are lost or damaged outside of the United States are the buyer's. Revere Books will be responsible for international orders that are lost or damaged en route only within the United States. For unclaimed packages all shipping charges will be retained by the seller. All books subject to prior sale. Orders shipped boxed and bubblewrapped with USPS delivery confirmation.
About the Seller
Revere Books, ABAA & IOBA
About Revere Books, ABAA & IOBA
Glossary
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- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
- Fine
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- Inscribed
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- Spine
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- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...