Valancourt Books
  • Home
  • Info
    • Our History
    • Who We Are
    • Where to Buy
    • FAQ
    • Contact
    • Gift Cards
  • Catalogue
    • Valancourt Classics
    • Horror & Science Fiction
    • LGBT Classics
    • International Series
    • Gothic & Romantic
    • Victorian & Edwardian
    • Vintage Thrills and Chills
    • Limited Editions
    • audiobooks
  • Authors
  • Booksellers
  • Merch
Picture
BOOK DETAILS
Trade paper

ISBN-13: 978-1939140401
List Price: $15.99 U.S.
Pages: 222
Published: 2013
The Vodi (1959)
John Braine
With a new introduction by Janine Utell

Due to copyright restrictions, this title is only available to U.S. customers.
Purchase paperback
Book Description

As a child, Dick Corvey discovered the existence of the Vodi, a race of ferret-faced creatures with luminous eyes responsible for all the misfortune and suffering in the world. Now fully grown, Dick lies in a sanitorium, suffering from untreatable tuberculosis. Unable to leave his hospital bed and convinced that the Vodi will win its ultimate triumph with his fast-approaching death, he spends his time remembering the many failures in his life that have led him to this point. But when an attractive nurse, Evelyn Mallaton, is transferred to Dick’s ward and takes an interest in his recovery, Dick begins to believe in the possibility of regaining his health and defeating the Vodi once and for all. . . .

The hero of John Braine’s smash bestseller Room at the Top (1957) was a man determined to succeed at all costs; in his second novel, The Vodi (1959), Braine depicted a very different type of character: a man who seems resigned to failure. This edition of The Vodi, which M. John Harrison has called “the defining moment of an as-yet-unreported genre, kitchen sink gothic,” is the first-ever American reprint of the novel and includes a new introduction by Janine Utell.

reviews

“A gifted and skilled writer . . . His prose is at its best extremely vivid.” - Richard Hoggart, The Guardian

“Triumphantly underlines the point that Room at the Top was no flash-in-the-pan. He alone, of the generation that has achieved celebrity in the last five years, is a genuine novelist in the great tradition.” - Yorkshire Post

“A valid and important human situation . . . The book is vivid with the characteristic Braine sights and smells.” - Kenneth Allsop, Daily Mail

“The work of a real writer.” – Peter Green, The Telegraph

“Once again Mr. Braine shows his great capacity for a tearaway narrative, for crisp dialogue and stark emotion . . . The Vodi increases his stature.” –
 London Times



PAPERBACK
​Amazon US

Barnes and Noble
EBOOK
Kindle US

MORE TITLES BY THIS AUTHOR

Picture
Picture

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Picture
John Gerard Braine was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1922. He sprang to immediate fame in 1957 with publication of his first novel, Room at the Top, which was a critical success and a major bestseller in England and America and was adapted for the screen in an Oscar-winning 1959 film starring Simone Signoret and Laurence Harvey. His second novel, The Vodi (1959), met with mixed reviews and a disappointing reception, but was Braine’s favourite of his own works. His next book, Life at the Top (1962), a sequel to Room at the Top, sold well and was filmed in 1965.

Braine, who was commonly associated with what the British media dubbed the ‘Angry Young Men’ movement of working-class writers disenchanted with the traditional British class system, continued writing until his death in 1986, though as of 2013, all his works were out of print. Recently, there has been renewed interest in Braine’s work, with Valancourt Books’ reissues of Room at the Top and The Vodi, and a 2012 BBC miniseries adaptation of 
Room at the Top.



"We owe a debt of gratitude to the publisher Valancourt, whose aim is to resurrect some neglected works of literature, especially those incorporating a supernatural strand, and make them available to a new readership." 
- Times Literary Supplement

INFO

Our History
What We Publish
Who We Are
Contact
Shipping FAQ

OUR CATALOGUE

Literary Fiction
Horror & Science Fiction
Vintage Thrills and Chills
LGBT Interest
Gothic & Romantic
Victorian & Edwardian

BUY FROM US

Booksellers
Valancourt Books | PO Box 6373, Richmond, VA 23230 | 804.873.8528 | email
Copyright © 2024 by Valancourt Books, LLC. All rights reserved. Valancourt Books® is a registered trademark of Valancourt Books, LLC.
Banner art by M.S. Corley