Stolen from Gypsies

by Noble Smith

Book Overview

Ambrogio Smythe, a hypochodriacal British nobleman, is obsessed by childhood memories of Gypsies. Ambrogio leaves his ancestral estate and makes his way to Florence, always aware of the lurking menace... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 188399182X
• ISBN13: 9781883991821
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Riverwood Books
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Stolen From Gypsies

A wonderfully crafted adult fairy tale liberally sprinkled with chuckles and laughs. Set in an historically believable Italian city and tastefully spiced with inoffensive bawdy language. The author obviously loves words and the reader quickly gets to enjoy the playfullness with which they are used.

A rollicking good read

I loved this book. I recommend it if you enjoy an engaging historical backdrop, a phrase well-turned, and a tale that's just plain funny. This is a whimsical stroll through a land of wise fools, false magicians, cursed princes and lovesick, humpbacked poets, where everyone from Napoleon to the local camel vendor receives a cheerful, witty drubbing. Pay special attention to the glossary, replete with tidbits both historical and hysterical.

Shakespearean style, Python humor and Black Adder wit!

Noble Smith's, Stolen From Gypsies, reads like a Shakespearean comedy, but it's got a twist. All the Playwright's elements and plot devices are present from female characters disguised as male characters to long lost twins finding each other at last to letters accidentally crossed. Even the ending is typically theatrical with all the characters joining together on the stage as the author brings together the missing threads of the story.But the ancient Playwright would probably bounce his ancient coffin right out of the ground with laughter could he read this piece of finely crafted wit. For though the structure of the story reads like a play, such Elizabethan bawdiness and humor as is found in Gypies has not been heard since Black Adder and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Smith doesn't skip a page without leaving one shocked with mirth over his Elizabethan "codpiece" humor or rolling with laughter over his descriptions of life in Carthusalem or the bawdy antics of his characters. A young man stolen from gypsies as a baby, a flatulent homunculus, and a she-devil out to get the protagonist's soul are just some of the characters which bound across and through this brilliantly fashioned plot.But one must not neglect to mention the narrator -- an infirm man whose frequent "beet-juice enemas", doctor's visits and stool sample checks have left him with little joy in life. And it is he who is documenting the tale originally told to him by the gypsy. He reads the story to his lackey -- a crude but delightful little man whose own story of the "clock-sniffer" leaves the reader prostrate with laughter. Together they take us through the comical scenes of the gypsy's tale, made even more hilarious by their constant witty banter. And finally, after the story is told, our narrator -- like his own protagonist -- discovers life anew and overcomes his own infirmities.In short, if you love the antics of Monty Python, the wit of Black Adder or the well crafted plots of the Shakespearean comedies -- or if you just love a good bawdy story with Elizabethan flare (and I dare say smell!) -- then you'll be delighted with this highly intelligent, hilariously bawdy, well told tale.

Smeggin' Brilliant Tale of Mirth and Merriment

Fiction isn't my bag normally, but Noble Smith has woven a tale of such magnitude that all who touch it shall be transfixed. I couldn't put it down and neither will you. Comparisons with Monty Python are much too easy. The only thing to say is that if you like Python, you'll like Smith. That's where it ends. The originality shines in the same light as "Being John Malkovich" in that the reader is left dumbfounded at the source of its creation. This is a work of wonder, folks. Buy yourself this treat and thank your lucky stars for works like this that make us all believe in fiction again!

"You will find out soon enough.That is part of the mystery."

This is easily the most satisfying tale I've read in a very long time. Rambunctious and witty, vastly imaginative, racingly-paced, and always downright funny, Stolen from Gypsies is a book for anyone who loves a great yarn spun with great skill. The author is drunk like a lord on the rich, mad joy of the English language itself, but not only can he hold his liquor, he turns the wildness of our words, old and new, into pure, narrative gold. This book is no spare, dry, modern comment on our brief, contemporary moment; it's a hot-blooded, hip-wading, sly-winking romp through the rich, roiling tradition of hundreds of years of broadly comic tale-telling. Full of exaggerated characters with outrageous names who do, say, and think extraordinary things, and written with appreciable literary and historical wisdom and wit, this story is firmly rooted in what everyone will recognize and appreciate as the ancient tradition of classically good storytelling. Have you been yearning for an irrepresibly laugh-out-loud tale which steeps you in history and adventure, cozies you near and dear to absurd characters, bashes you good-naturedly about the head with old English slang, and goads you into turning the pages in equal measure of curiosity, surprise, and happy contentment of perhaps the most familiar, well-loved experience language can give us--the pleasure of a great story wondrously unfolding? Then you'll love this book; it's a true pleasure. Post-note for all you hybridization fans: think Anthony Burgess's "Nothing Like the Sun" (a brilliant masterpiece) crossed with something more outright comic--the Monty Python movie epics will have to do for now. Maybe another reader will come up with the perfect title here...