Description

A sly, sparkling theatregoing of Edwardian Britain, Carnival exposes the farce and fervour of holiday culture with a precision that still bites today. Compton Mackenzie's brisk, urbane prose fiction uses a seemingly sunny seaside town to skewer social class, ambition, and the chicanery of everyday life. The novel's wit sits beside a keen psychological insight: the contrasts of urban impulse and coastal repose lay bare the tides of class, aspiration, and belonging. It is at once a readable comic canvas and a sharp-edged social portrait, a british satirical novel that also reads as a careful study of early twentieth century manners and manners' misfires. For readers who relish British seaside towns, the book offers a lively chorus of voices, settings, and social colour that reward repeated visits. This edition marks a milestone in the long arc of Mackenzie's reputation, offering an academic study edition sensibly balanced for classroom and library shelves, while staying inviting to the casual reader. It situates Carnival alongside British author era comparisons, showing how Mackenzie's satire resonates with and diverges from contemporaries. Out of print for decades, Alpha Editions presents a restored, timeless edition-more than a reprint, a collector's item and a cultural treasure for libraries, scholars, and bargain-hunting lovers of prose fiction alike.