The Set Up

Name: The Set Up
Brand: Unknown
SKU: 9781912740086
Price: 54.99 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Joseph Moncure March

Summary

The Set-Up is a hard-boiled narrative poem from 1928 that explores the US boxing underworld through syncopated rhyming couplets. It follows Pansy, a rising black prizefighter with a fierce reputation in the ring. Despite his prowess, Pansy's turbulent love life leads to imprisonment and a decline in his career, culminating in a brutal betrayal by his management and opponent, ending in tragic violence.
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Format: Hardback

$54⁹⁹

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The Set Up

$54⁹⁹

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This graphic novel reprint, enhanced with dynamic new artwork, will appeal to readers interested in classic American poetry, boxing history, and gritty noir tales.

"The lost classic by the author of 'The Wild Party'"--Back cover.

Description

Written in 1928, The Set-Up is a long narrative poem about the US boxing underworld—a hard-boiled tragedy told in syncopated rhyming couplets. When the work was first published, it made The New York Times bestseller list, and in 1949 it was turned into an award-winning film featuring Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter.

This reprinting of the original, unchanged 1928 poem features dynamic, specially commissioned artwork by Erik Kriek that vividly conveys the story of Pansy, an up-and-coming black prizefighter who takes on all comers. When he was in the ring, It was over before you knew it. He'd carve you up like a leg of mutton. And drop you flat with a sock on the button. Pansy's complicated love life leads to a spell in prison, and his career subsequently takes a nosedive; but he continues to box until the fateful night his fight managers and opponent triple-cross him, and he meets a grisly end at the hands of a vengeful gang.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

New York Times Book Review praised the poem at its 1928 release, calling it an "astonishing narrative" delivering "episodes that make the blood boil" and "tragic pathos so deep as almost to defeat any faith in man."

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781912740086

Publisher: Korero Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 21 April 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Korero Press

Illustration: 1 Illustrations

Contributors:

By Erik Kriek

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 145.0mm

Height: 220.0mm

Weight: 300g

Pages: 256

Collections

Adult Graphic Novels Fiction Graphic Novels Joseph Moncure March

About the Author

Joseph Moncure March (18991977) was the first managing editor of The New Yorker, and helped create the magazine's Talk of the Town front section. After leaving the magazine, March wrote the first of his two important Jazz Age narrative poems, The Wild Party. In 1928 he followed it with The Set-up. Moving to Hollywood in 1929 he became the scriptwriter who turned the silent version of Howard Hughes' classic Hell's Angels into a talkie a rewrite that brought the phrase 'Excuse me while I put on something more comfortable' into the American lexicon. A screenwriter in Hollywood until 1940, March eventually became a writer of documentaries for the State Department and a feature writer for The New York Times Magazine.

Erik Kriek is an award-winning illustrator, designer, and comic artist from Amsterdam. He is best known for his Gutsman comics, for which he won the Dutch award Stripschaprijis in 2008. In 2012 he published From Beyond and Other Tales, his collection of graphic reworkings of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. Among his influences are US artists such as Daniel Clowes, Will Eisner, Charles Burns and Chris Ware, as well as the classic 1940s horror comics of E.C. Comics by artists such as Wallace Wood. He has also expressed admiration for Dutch artists including Peter Pontiac, Typex and Peter van Dongen. He lives in the Netherlands with his girlfriend and son