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The Devil's Mode

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The Devil's Mode
First edition cover
AuthorAnthony Burgess
PublisherHutchinson
Publication date
1989

The Devil's Mode (1989) is the only collection of short stories by the English author Anthony Burgess.

The stories included are varied in their settings and themes and display Burgess's characteristic wide range, while touching on such themes as the private life of Shakespeare, which he speculated on in his novel Nothing Like the Sun, and the lives of British expatriates in the Far East, explored by Burgess in his Malayan trilogy.

Contents

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Reception

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The collection received mixed to negative reviews. Helen Benedict, writing for the New York Times, writing "his first collection of short stories reads as if he had dashed them off in his bathtub". Benedict wrote positively about A Meeting in Valladolid, 1889 and the Devil's Mode, and Hun, but found the other stories to be hollow.[1] Kirkus Reviews described the collection as "scraps from the master's table".[2] A reviewer for Library Journal wrote "In this moderately diverting collection, mild irony and witty erudition fail to disguise a want of feeling."[3]

References

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  1. ^ Benedict, Helen (10 December 1989). "THE DEVIL'S MODE By Anthony Burgess". New York Times. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  2. ^ "THE DEVIL'S MODE | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews. 15 October 1989. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  3. ^ Waldhorn, Arthur (1 November 1989). "The Devil's Mode (Book)". Library Journal. 114 (18): 111.