The Debt to Pleasure

A Novel

by John Lanchester

Tarquin (formerly Rodney) Winot, an impeccably correct English Francophile, journeys not just to his cottage in Provence, but through a forest of sensual description as he offers the story of his life through food. It is only gradually, as the novel assumes some of the qualities of a highly suspenseful thriller, that we begin to realize that Tarquin Winot is not merely the witty voluptuary he seems to be. John Lanchester is--unsurprisingly--a former restaurant critic; this is his first work of fiction.

Editions of The Debt to Pleasure

ISBN 9780805051308	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Henry Holt & Co	Date 1997	Price $1.00	Good
ISBN 9780771045851	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher McClelland & Stewart Ltd	Date 1996	Price $1.00	Used - Very Good
ISBN 9780805043884	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Henry Holt & Co	Date 1996	Price $1.00	Used, Good
ISBN 9781574530254	Binding/Format Audio Cassette	Publisher Audio Literature	Date 1998	Price None Available
ISBN 9780312420369	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Picador USA	Date 2001	Price $1.00	Good

Publisher Notes

An impeccable, epicurean Englishman and lifelong Francophile recounts his past pleasures in Provence, in a meditation on food, vodka, and restaurant-going that becomes a dark satire on hedonism, in a critically acclaimed novel by the former restaurant critic of the London Observer. Reprint.

Media Reviews

"....[S]omething sly and sinister creeps into the story by way of Tarqin's digressions and asides, until, finally, we get it. This man is not unaware of himself. He knows what he is doing and what he is telling us about himself. His parenthetical revelations produce little shivers of shock. He lifts the lid on his cooking pot and when we see what ingredients are really in his stew, our horror is all the greater because we had been so skillfully encouraged until then to be innocent."

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