Search results
Illywhacker is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey. It was published in 1985 to commercial and critical success, winning a number of awards and being short-listed for the Booker Prize.
- Peter Carey
- 1985
Jun 3, 2024 · illywhacker (plural illywhackers) (Australia, colloquial, rare) A small-time confidence trickster or seller of trinkets.
Jan 1, 2001 · Illywhacker is an epical tale of eccentricity and a rumbustious picaresque novel to boot. And the tales of bizarre characters should be told in a strange way otherwise all the weirdness will be lost.
- (3K)
- Paperback
Peter Carey: Illywhacker. Rightly described as a picaresque masterpiece, Illywhacker is the story of 139-year old Herbert Badgery, an “illywhacker” (a term for “a professional trickster, esp. operating at country shows”).
Jun 20, 2020 · Illywhacker. "Illywhacker is a dazzling comic narrative from the lips of the 139-year-old Herbert Badgery. Overflowing with magic, jokes and inventions, peopled with aviators, car salesmen, Chinamen and impresarios, Peter Carey's novel was greeted with widespread acclaim"--Dustjacket.
Illywhacker is an epical tale of eccentricity and a rumbustious picaresque novel to boot. And the tales of bizarre characters should be told in a strange way otherwise all the weirdness will be lost.
In Australian slang, an Illywhacker is a country fair con man, an unprincipled seller of fake diamonds and dubious tonics. And Herbert Badgery, the 139-year-old narrator of Peter Carey’s uproarious novel, may be the king of them all.
