A Vaudeville of Devils: Seven Moral Tales
| Author | Robert Girardi |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Delacorte Press |
Publication date | 1999 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 421 pp |
| ISBN | 0-385-33398-6 |
| OCLC | 42359780 |
A Vaudeville of Devils: 7 Moral Tales is a collection of short stories and novellas by Robert Girardi.
"The Dinner Party"
The short story, loosely set in Portugal, is a synthesis between "The Masque of the Red Death", Our Man in Havana, and Shikasta.
First published in TriQuarterly Review, Issue 99 (Spring/Summer 1997).
"The Defenestration of Abu Sid"
A crime, or detective novella about the Washington D.C. public defender Martin Wexler, and his personal growth defending a sociopathic gangster.
"Sunday Evenings at Contessa Pasquali's"
A mystery novella about the expatriate American Billy, who has settled in Naples and the Contessa's Sunday night soirees. "Vedi Napoli e poi muori."[1]
Criticism
New York Times Book Review, 06/27/1999 "[Girardi] writes sensuous prose that unapologetically invokes the supernatural. Although moral in theme, these frank, erotic tales are never moralistic."—Katherine Wolff [2]
"Robert Girardi is the only writer I know of who is working successfully in the neglected tradition of Guy de Maupassant, Isak Dinesen, and Edgar Allan Poe--with as protean an imagination and as dexterous a pen as any of theirs. You can read these seven moral tales for pure entertainment, then wait to see what else may linger."—Madison Smartt Bell[3]
Times Literary Supplement, 09/10/1999, "A Vaudeville of Devils, a collection of shorter fiction, is preoccupied with darkness and light, appearance and reality. The stories in this volume are richly descriptive, with a whiff of the grotesque and macabre."[4] - Baret Magarian