The Lecturer's Tale: A Novel - Softcover

James Hynes is the author of The Wild Colonial Boy and Publish and Perish, a New York Times Notable Book. His television criticism has appeared in Mother Jones and the Utne Reader. He lives in Austin, Texas.

“The most devasting satirical portrait of contemporary academic life I've ever read.” ―Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World

“[Hynes] writes so brilliantly, inventively, and lovingly about the sins of academe that the reader ends up, like Milton's Satan, even more eager to serve in Hell.” ―Chronicle of Higher Education

“A full-blown academic farce. Hynes has hit on a brilliant ploy in weaving Gothic horror with contemporary lit crit.” ―Tobin Harshaw, The New York Times Book Review

“Hynes bathes his ship of overeducated fools in such luscious detail (the trends! the allusions! the hairstyles!) that he vaults to the head of the crowded class of academic satirists.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Near perfection . . . The Lecturer's Tale is an arch academic horror story where no chain-rattling ghost could hold a candle to the terror that is a power-hungry English department chairman. It's is also a very funny, very dark satire that does more to deflate academic pretense than any earnest political lament ever could.” ―The Hartford Courant

“The Lecturer's Tale is rowdy and brilliant--pointedly literate and scathingly funny all at once.” ―Texas Monthly

“A delight to read . . . It is the kind of book that all of us who spend hour upon hour trying to achieve consensus in ideological divided committees fantasize about writing someday (if only we had Hynes's talent).” ―Eliza Nichols, Boston Review

“A daring comic novel . . . [that will] leave readers happy.” ―Entertainment Weekly

“More than just a ribald tale of modern misbehavior among the learned class, The Lecturer's Tale sings a song of fervent love for the English language.” ―The Austin Chronicle

“Ferocious . . . Splicing a demonic strain into the usual elements of academic comedy, Hynes's novel . . . reads like David Lodge rewritten by Mikhail Bulgakov.” ―Publishers Weekly l(starred review)

“[A] wickedly funny academic horror novel.” ―Polly Shulman, Newsday

“A wild, laugh-out-loud ride.” ―Carrie Harrison, San Francisco Chronicle

“[Hynes] has a knack for exploding academic stereotypes into hyperbole so unreal that it's giddily true . . . An acidulously droll spoof.” ―The Commercial Appeal