Foolscap: Or, The Stages of Love

by Michael Malone

Overview

Professor Theo Ryan lives a quiet life teaching drama at Cavendish University in North Carolina, but everything gets turned upside down when he meets Ford Rexford—America's best-known playwright. Ford is the most talented and the most impossible man Theo has ever met. And Ford's genius, his reckless romanticism, and his fearless love of life profoundly influence the reticent scholar.

When Ford discovers that Theo has written a play, a madcap journey begins that pushes the young recluse out of the wings onto the bright, bustling stages of life and love. There he finds himself playing roles he never would have thought possible. In his most hilarious book since Handling Sin, Michael Malone has created a story as wildly funny as it is profoundly wise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402253997
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	04/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Michael Malone is the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories, and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he is now a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife.

Michael Malone is the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he is now a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife.

Hometown:

Hillsborough, North Carolina

Place of Birth:

Durham, North Carolina

Education:

B.A., Syracuse University; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University

Table of Contents

Contents
-Prologue -1
I-{scene: Rome, and the Neighborhood} -5
1-Whispers -6
2 -A Cry Within -21
3-Flourish -32
4-Aside -41
5-A Bell Rings -48
6-Music Is Heard -57
II-{scene: A Playhouse} -63
7-Here a Dance -64
8-They Speak Together -73
9-Enter Disguised -81
10-Aloft -87
11-Enter a Messenger with a Letter -94
12-A Trumpet Sounds -104
13-Thunder and Lightning -112
14-Storm Still -120
III-{scene: An Island} -131
15-Enter Time, a Chorus -132
16-A Banquet Is Prepared -142
17-Enter a Gentleman -148
18-Enter Several Strange Shapes -158
19-Exit Disguised and Muffled -165
IV-{scene: London, and Other Parts of England} -173
20-Enter the Messenger, as Before -174
21-Enter a Soothsayer -185
22-The Manor Bourne -200
23-A Great Procession -220
24-Accepts a Favor -235
25-Sound Retreat, Afar Off -250
26-Exit the Guardsman -268
V-{scene: Various Stages} -279
27-Interlude -280
28-Throws Down a Glove -294
29-Enter Two or Three Lords -312
30-Enter Bastard -324
31-General Alarum -340
32-They All Enter the Circle -350
33-Exeunt All But... -361
Epilogue -373

Editorial Reviews

In top comedic form, Malone follows a North Carolina English professor's merry chase across the Atlantic after a play of his that has been purloined. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A play about Sir Walter Raleigh written by Theo Ryan, literature professor at a small North Carolina college, seems an unlikely vehicle to be at the heart of this very entertaining novel about campus politics, forgery, the American theater, and British aristocracy. In his meandering but pleasant style ( Time's Witness , Little, Brown, 1989; Handling Sin , LJ 4/15/86), Malone weaves a plot filled with wonderful characters, from garrulous playwright Ford Rexford, who has come to the North Carolina hills to dry out; to Ryan's parents, theater troopers to the end; to Dame Winifred Throckmorton, an eccentric Elizabethan scholar whose driving and teaching skills are legendary. The play does eventually go on, as it must, and the trip to the first curtain makes for enjoyable reading. Highly recommended for all general fiction collections.-- C. Christopher Pavek, National Economic Research Assocs. Lib., Washington, D.C.

Library Journal

YA-- Embarrassed by his past, Theo Ryan, professor of Renaissance drama, tries to hide the fact that he is the child of ``show-biz'' parents. He literally and figuratively pursues his own play, Foolscap , when the only copy of his script is stolen by Ford Rexford, American playwright and international scoundrel. As Theo tries to retrieve his masterpiece, he travels to England where he meets the famous and eccentric scholar, Dame Winifred Throckmorton, as well as the equally bizarre Jones Marsh. The novel satirizes the worlds of academe, the theater, and the English privileged class. It is an inviting blend of character study, intrigue, and theater lore. It's a book for those interested in writing, theater, or having a good laugh.-- Patricia Bowers, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA

School Library Journal