Product Description

"A cool, comic survey of the sexual education of a young Hungarian. . . . Elegantly erotic, with masses of that indefinable quality, style." (B. A. Young, Punch)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #503336 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Isabel Quigly, Sunday Telegraph
"A funny novel about sex, or rather (which is rarer) a novel which is funny as well as touching about sex... elegant, exact and melodious - has style, presence and individuality."

From the Publisher
The latest 1999 printing is the forty-fourth printing of the English-language edition; it is the fourth printing of the University of Chicago Press edition. Translations of the novel went through over a hundred printings.

From the Back Cover
Additional Reviews

"A cool, comic survey of the sexual education of a young Hungarian, from his first encounter, as a twelve-year-old refugee with the American forces, to his unsatisfactory liaison with a reporter's wife in Canada at the belated end of his youth, when he was twenty-three... elegantly erotic, with masses of that indefinable quality, style... this has the real stuff of immortality." -- B. A. Young, Punch

"Doesn't offer fantasy sex like Frank Harris, or ribald sex like Henry Miller; he conveys much of the warmth and understanding that seems more common between the sheets than between the covers of novels... falls like an antidote into our youth obsessed society... a delightfully charming and richly ironic book. Put a fresh breeze there on your fiction shelves among all the neurotica." -- Library Journal

"A pleasure. Vizinczey writes of women beautifully, with sympathy, tact and delight, and he writes about sex with more lucidity and grace than most writers ever acquire." -- Larry McMurtry, Houston Post

"Like James Joyce, who was as far from being a writer of erotica as Dostoevsky, Vizinczey has a refreshing message to deliver: Life is not about sex, sex is about life." -- John Podhoretz, Washington Times

"The gracefully written story of a young man growing up among older women... although some passages may well arouse the reader, this novel brims with what the courts have termed "redeeming literary merit." Clarence Petersen, The Chicago Tribune

"The best summing-up of In Praise of Older Women was given in the London Sunday Citizen: Vizinczey really knows, and Henry Miller and the rest - even D H Lawrence - only thought they did. His knowledge extends to all fields, including the literary one... The novel has a dynamism which is defined by one of its own phrases: Havent you heard of Einsteins law? Pleasure turns into energy." -- Clara Janés, El País (Madrid) This refers to the Spanish edition of the novel

"Erotic situations, games, frustrations, naive miscalculations, humiliations, joyful and tearful pleasures... Vizinczey never exaggerates, he writes with clear detachment not devoid of irony:his graceful and suggestive style frees us from the anguish that love often brings with it. A little masterpiece in which sex is knowledge and good literature." -- Maria Dols, Ajoblanco (Barcelona)This refers to the Spanish edition of the novel

"An erotic classic of subtle complexity, humour and wit. An invitation to the experience of love, to adventure. But it is also the portrait of someone who is familiar to us from family stories, someone we have all known at some time. And perhaps Vizinczey's great success is owing to this, and to his style, which is so unaffected, so natural and at the same time so perfectly exact." Menene Gras Balaguer, La Vanguardia (Barcelona) This refers to the Spanish edition of the novel

"Full of wisdom and irony, with a shot of heart's blood and a drop of melancholy added. A tribute to women as well as the portrait of an age which has been irrevocably lost. A book that caresses the heart and soul, without becoming sentimental." Bernd Lubowski, Berliner Morgen Post This refers to the German edition of the novel

"The delicious adventures of a young Casanova who appreciates maturity while acquiring it himself. In turn naive, sophisticated, arrogant, disarming, the narrator woos his women and his tale wins the reader." Polly Devlin, Vogue

Customer Reviews

Controversial view of women
Our book club reviewed this short novel for our monthly discussion. The author, who now lives in England, came to talk to us about his experiences in writing it. The book club (all women) were divided about whether it was a great novel about a young man who liked and loved women or one who just viewed them as sexual objects. The one thing that we all agreed upon was that it was a very easy read and it provoked lots of healthy discussion.

A Classic!
This utterly charming and beguiling novel will be treasured by anyone who has ever been in love- or who would like to be someday. It can be returned to again and again with pleasure- and on each reading you will find new morsels of wisdom to savor. Vizinczey's wonderful book will entrance and instruct and entertain anyone fortunate enough to encounter it. Do yourself a favor and give this one a chance.

Nobel Prize Material
I am absolutely convinced that this is one of the few greatest books EVER written, in any country, in any language. It is definitely NOT "about young HUNGARIAN", as one of the previous reviewers has suggested. This is a book for all times and all nations. I believe this one belongs to the same top league as "The Red and the Black" by Stendahl, "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov, "A Farewell to Arms" by Hemingway to name the few. Apparently, this opinion is shared by 3 mln buyers around the world, who have read this book either in original English version (43 editions so far!) or in every major world's languages. Everywhere it's considered as "the modern classic". Everywhere... but not in America. Why? Just wait and see... My personal love-affair with this book sounds almost like a detective story. I smuggled this book into Soviet Union in 1968 risking the jail sentence - would they have found it at the customs. Because it was the biggest crime in the book - to bring into the "ideologically clean" (a.k.a. "politically correct") Soviet Union the book which is, first, "Anti-Soviet(?!)" and - even worth, hold your breath - SOOOOOOO EROTIC! Don't you remember that famous line: "There's NO SEX in the Soviet Union!?" In that stuffy, stagnating atmosphere of Communist "political correctness" - where everything which was fresh, lively, vibrant and true was strictly FORBIDDEN!- this book for me was like a breath of fresh air! I liked it so much that finally I've decided to translate it into Russian - without a trace of hope of ever publishing it, simply out of the enormous respect for its Author. (Mind it, I am NOT a professional interpreter. But I consider this work as one of my greatest personal achievements in life!) The Author is a genius. Why? Because he wrote abot ME and also about millions of guys like me who lived in every part of this world - without knowing us! That's why this book is forever, for all times and all nations. If I had a son, I would give him this book, saying: "One day you WILL fall in love. But after reading this book, I'm sure, you'll do it the RIGHT and PROPER way!" An eventual reader may ask: "If it is so good, why it is not THAT famous in America?" Ah, because IT IS POLITICALLY INCORRECT! It praises women like the greatest, the most wonderful God's creations - and NOT like an equal "fellow-citizens". If you have any gay-lesbian inclinations - stay away from it. If you are - God forbid! - feminists, stay away from it. (I recall one of my classmates, a nice girl, but not exactly popular and/or attractive: she was crying bitterly every time she heard someone referring to her - "She is ve-e-ery smart!" Which was true!) Yes, this book is "all about sex"; as much as Pushkin's "Queen of Spades" is "all about cards game" and Dostoyevsky's "The Gambler" is "all about gambling". It is all about LOVE and LIVE - and there's no other more important and fascinating subject in the whole world's literature! Bravo, Stephen Vizinczey, I hope we will all live to the day when - if for nothing else you've written - FOR THIS BOOK ALONE(!) you'll be awarded with the greatest honor in Literature!