num_pages: 183
description: Hailed by his famous contemporaries including Edith Wharton, H.G. Wells, Katherine Mansfield, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh, who called him a "genius," William Gerhardie is one of the twentieth century's forgotten masters, and his lovely comedy Futility one of the century's neglected masterpieces.It tells the story of someone very similar to Gerhardie a young Englishman raised in Russia who returns to St. Petersburg and falls in love with the daughter of a hilariously dysfunctional family -- all played out with the armies of the Russian Revolution marching back and forth outside the parlor window.Part British romantic comedy, part Russian social realism, and with a large cast of memorable characters, this astoundingly funny and poignant novel is the tale of people persisting in love and hope despite the odds.
language: English
title: Futility: A Novel on Russian Themes
titlecomplete: Futility: A Novel on Russian Themes
genres: Fiction, Russian Literature, Humor, Classics, British Literature, Classic Literature, Russia, Novels
ratings_count: 209
publisher: Penguin