What A Life! is a work of satirical fiction by Edward Verrall Lucas and George Morrow published in 1911. The book is best known for its inventive narrative technique: the story takes the reader through the life of an upper-class British gentleman, with the plot being dictated by the book's illustrations, which the authors took from a copy of Whiteley's General Catalogue (Whiteley's was a London department store at the time). It was included in the 1936 MOMA exhibition "Fantastic Art, Dada, and Surrealism".

What a Life!
AuthorE. V. Lucas & George Morrow
LanguageEnglish
GenreSatirical, Autobiographical novel
PublisherMethuen
Publication date
17 August 1911
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)

Though the book is still copyrighted in the United Kingdom, it is in the public domain in the US.

What a life !, p.104

Release details

edit
  • 1911, UK, Methuen & Co. (ISBN NA), Pub date August 17, 1911, hardback (First edition)
  • 1975, US, Dover Publications (ISBN 0-486-23133-X), Pub date ? ? 1975, paperback
  • 1987, US, Dover Publications (ISBN 0-486-23133-X), Pub date May 20, 1987, paperback (reissue)
  • 1987, UK, William Collins Sons & Co. (ISBN 0-00-217796-X), Pub date October 19, 1987, hardback
  • 2015, FR, Quelle vie!, Editions Prairial (ISBN 979-10-93699-05-9), July 1, 2015, paperback
  • 2018, US, Black Scat Books (ISBN 978-1-7323506-9-4), Pub date May 16, 2018, paperback

References

edit
edit
  • What A Life! Online text with original illustrations. Public domain in the US.