{"product_id":"2026600003096-secondhand-the-ordeal-of-gilbert-pinfold-a-conversation-piece","title":"The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold: A Conversation Piece","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: 1st ed.,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good                          \u003cbr\u003eJacket: Wear and tear\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing                  \u003cbr\u003eMarkings: No markings\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Boards - some marks. Binding - tight. Clean  copy. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA darkly comic and semi-autobiographical novella, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold: A Conversation Piece chronicles the harrowing mental breakdown of a middle-aged English novelist who, seeking rest and recuperation aboard an ocean liner, becomes tormented by a cacophony of disembodied voices only he can hear. Evelyn Waugh draws unmistakably from his own 1954 breakdown — brought on by an alarming cocktail of sleeping draughts and alcohol — to craft a portrait of paranoia, persecution, and the fragile boundary between sanity and delusion. The narrative unfolds with Waugh's signature dry wit and unflinching self-awareness, turning what could be a purely harrowing account into something both unsettling and mordantly funny. With surgical precision, it illustrates how a man of rigid social certainties and conservative temperament is utterly undone by the chaos erupting from within his own mind. The result is one of the most bracingly honest works of psychological fiction in twentieth-century British literature, as compelling for its literary craft as for its raw confessional courage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48810634576091,"sku":"2026600003096-SECONDHAND","price":35.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/75ae66cc-1f42-411a-932e-564b4faa075a.png?v=1779806326","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026600003096-secondhand-the-ordeal-of-gilbert-pinfold-a-conversation-piece","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}