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Thorne Smith


The Night Life of the Gods

Thorne Smith

Hunter Hawk is the epitome of a 'mad' scientist. An affluent bachelor, tired of sharing his home with his bossy sister and her family, sets off on a delightful adventure. With the help of his newly found 900 year old leprechaun girlfriend, he unleashes his successful invention: transforming people into statues, and vice versa. The once conservative gentleman and his evil henchwoman cause quite the stir in his hometown as even part of the minister is turned to stone.

Being chased by the police is not enough to quench his thirst for adventure. Soon, Hawk has the Greek gods in the Metropolitan Museum of Art loose on the city of New York. Bacchus, Mercury, Neptune, Diana, Hebe, Apollo, Venus and Perseus paint the town. Laughter flows as does liquor, food, and fornication.

Turnabout

Thorne Smith

Thorne Smith pits two thoroughly modern married people in a classic battle of the sexes. After listening to the nearly endless bickering and childish jealousy of a young man and wife (Tim and Sally Willows), an ancient Egyptian idol decides to play a trick on the two by causing them to switch bodies. Like Thorne Smith, Tim works in an advertising agency, and several scenes are set there, drawing on the author's experience. After the wife forcefully impregnates her husband, things take a decided turn for the worse as they separately try to deal with the object of the former wife's affections—a deplorably predictable square-jawed philanderer by the name of Carl Bently.

Topper

Topper: Book 1

Thorne Smith

It all begins when Cosmo Topper, a law-abiding, mild-mannered bank manager, decides to buy a secondhand car, only to find it haunted by the ghosts of its previous owners--the reckless, feckless, frivolous couple who met their untimely demise when the car careened into an oak tree. The ghosts, George and Marion Kerby, make it their mission to rescue Topper from the drab "summer of suburban Sundays" that is his life--and they commence a series of madcap adventures that leave Topper, and anyone else who crosses their path, in a whirlwind of discomfiture and delight.

As enchanting today as it was when first published in 1926, Topper has set the standard in American pop culture for such mischievous apparitions as those seen in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Heaven Can Wait, Beetlejuice, and Bewitched.

Topper Takes a Trip

Topper: Book 2

Thorne Smith

The beloved characters--mortal and immortal--of Topper return in this uproarious romp through the south of France. One of Thorne Smith's best-loved comedies, it proves once again that he is the undisputed master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee.

Cosmo Topper, the mild-mannered bank manager who was persuaded to take a walk on the wild side by the ghosts of George and Marion Kerby in Topper, finds himself reunited with his dyspeptic wife for an extended vacation on the Riviera. But he doesn't have long to enjoy the peace and quiet before the irrepressible Kerbys materialize once again and start causing fracases, confusing the citizenry, alarming the gendarmes, getting naked, and turning every occasion into revelry or melee. Soon Marion decides that Topper as a ghost would be even more laughs than Topper in the flesh. And all she needs to arrange is one simple little murder.

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